The exhibition, curated by the Fondation Werner Bischof of Paris, the Magnum Photos Agency and the Contrasto Agency, is organized by Imago Multimedia, a photographic agency and publishing house from Nuoro, in collaboration with the MAN Museum of Nuoro. Over 100 photographs, a selection of the most famous shots. Furthermore, 30 photographs taken in Sardinia in 1950, many of which were unpublished and presented as world premieres.
A unique event in Sardinia, with over 130 of Bischof’s most famous photographs combined with a series of previously unpublished shots, the exhibition constitutes a comprehensive retrospective, a journey into the heart of the work of one of the most important reporters of the twentieth century, an artist recognized worldwide , with insatiable talent.
The first photographer, in 1949, to become a member of Magnum Photos, Werner Bischof was able to combine the documentary observation of reality, the need not to manipulate the gaze on events, with a lyrical, almost intimate vision of every situation and every subject with which he found himself operating. As he stated several times, he felt more like an artist than a photojournalist. And not many like him, in fact, have been able to condense, in a few but intense years of photographic and artistic activity, such a precise and profound, conscious and absolutely original observation.
Rejecting the “superficiality and sensationalism” of magazines, he dedicated much of his life to the study of traditional cultures, often neglected, an area that allowed him to keep his distance from publishers eager only for cover material. He thus traveled all over the world creating exceptional reportages of a social nature, touching countries such as Japan, Indochina, Korea, India – where, in 1951, for «Life magazine», he created the famous series dedicated to famine – and again, Mexico, Hong Kong, Panama and Peru, where he lost his life at just 38 years old. The images of those reports, which appeared in the main magazines and the most important international magazines, are visible for the first time in Sardinia thanks to the exhibition at the MAN Museum in Nuoro.
An important aspect of the Nuoro exhibition is the presence of an entire section dedicated to the shots that WERNER BISCHOF took in SARDINIA in 1950, some of which were presented in their WORLD PREMIERE.
Bischof was sent to the island by «Epoca» to document the miserable working conditions of the farmers of Campidano and the miners of Iglesiente. His reportage is characterized by total immersion in the context. The seriousness of the topics covered, which led many of his photojournalist colleagues to expressionism, was an opportunity for him to grasp the less dramatic side of events and people. A result he achieved by using the stylistic solution of “slightly out of focus”, capable of restoring an original freshness to the events. The photos taken in Sardinia, in satisfying a certain degree of formal research, find a balance between aesthetics and objective rigor in the care of the balance of the images: high cuts, centered shots, low and stunning close-ups with raised lights. Mastery of the technique allowed him to choose the best of an “unrepeatable” moment. His humanity is enhanced by the choice of subjects: there is the daily life of a people rather than a land, there is the Sardinia of the people rather than the idea of ​​an abstract lineage or an offended land. And with the lightness of smile on their faces, he managed to transcend the horrors and devastation caused by the war.
