FERDINANDO SCIANNA, THE FASHION PHOTOGRAPHER, CELEBRATES HIS 70TH BIRTHDAY

07/04/2013

The meeting with fashion was purely casual, when the career of Ferdinando Scianna was already of international importance, that is at the end of the ‘80s. Nevertheless, his camera has established itself as one of the most interesting points of view with respect to that great phenomenon, namely the Made in Italy was consolidating thanks to the big names that were becoming ever more important and the young talents that sprung up on a field of international importance.

Ferdinando Scianna today becomes 70 years old, and Bagheria - where he was born in 1943, and he often recounted in a unique and charming way - has changed, as the rest of the world of photography. When he interrupted his studies of Humanities, he decided to dedicate himself to this great passion which then became the language he used to express himself. In 1965 he won the Nadar Prize, in 1967 he became a photo reporter and special correspondent for "L'Europeo", in 1974 he moved to Paris where he met Henri Cartier-Bresson, who, along with Leonardo Sciascia, will become one of his best friends and most important point of reference, not surprisingly it was his French colleague who presented him to the prestigious Magnum agency.

"I've never photographed fashion, but a woman who wears clothes", this was the mission of Scianna ever since, after those memorable shots in black and white of Marpessa, he began working for the most important fashion magazines in the world, from "Vogue America" to "Grazia" and "Marie Claire", combining luxury with distant realities, frequently popular and often of his never forgotten Sicily. A unique way to approach fashion, to the point that he was attributed a specific style, namely the fashion reportage. A bit inventor and a bit director, this is how he defines his job: to photograph is to create, to verify that something really works. And even though today, without fear, he says that perhaps the contemporary world needs something different from photography, all you need to do is glance through the retrospective monograph "Altrove" to realize how this art is necessary to the contemporary world.

Andrea Vigneri