Gian Paolo Barbieri and Fashion Photography

House of Lucie Ostuni and The Lucie Awards dedicate Gian Paolo Barbieri: Beyond Fashion to the photographer and master who has shaped the history of contemporary fashion and costume photography. This retrospective is organized in collaboration with the Gian Paolo Barbieri Foundation and the 29 Arts In Progress gallery in Milan, from July 5 to August 31, 2024.

In addition to many of Barbieri’s masterpieces, several previously unseen photographs will be on display, ranging from the 1960s to the 2000s, the result of in-depth research conducted within the artist’s archive. Gian Paolo Barbieri managed to give a unique face to Italian fashion—one that no one had imagined before—becoming an accomplice and companion to those designers whom the advent of Made in Italy would turn into protagonists of a new era in costume and fashion. Alongside them, he interprets the most beautiful season of that new effervescence.

The exhibition features intimate and spontaneous shots of models and celebrities like Veruschka, Naomi Campbell, Marpessa, Eva Herzigova, Monica Bellucci, Mina, Isabella Rossellini, alternating with iconic photographs (including Audrey Hepburn from 1969) that Barbieri conceived for some of the most legendary advertising campaigns for both Italian and international fashion brands such as Versace, Ferrè, Vivienne Westwood, Dolce & Gabbana, Valentino, and Armani.

The exhibition also offers the public innovative images in terms of settings and styling, the result of the artist’s unmistakable ingenuity: a photography that is both ironic and cultured, sophisticated and provocative, rich with references to art history, eclectic outdoor sets in exotic locations, and cinematic quotes, echoing his youthful experience at Cinecittà in Rome. From his perspective, fashion without art is naked and empty. Here, the women in the displayed images liberate themselves from the most canonical poses of fashion photography, becoming spokespersons for a new unconventional elegance that reveals their most carefree and sensual side. Gian Paolo Barbieri’s photography fascinates, disconcerts, and retraces the history of Made in Italy.