Gian Paolo Barbieri, 'Uovo di Aepyornis', Madagascar 1994, BAR2018SLE, Gelatin silver print, cm. 50 x 40, Nr. 6 from an edition of 10, Signed, titled and numbered on print verso.
Gian Paolo Barbieri was born in Milan in 1938. In 1965, he began his collaboration with “Vogue Italia” and with many fashion designers. By 1978, “Stern” was ranking him as one of the 14 best fashion photographers in the world and in 1982, he published his first book, “Artificial”. During his travels for “Vogue”, he came into contact with other cultures that fascinated him: in Tahiti he discovered the topics of his imagination, transmitted to him by Gauguin’s paintings and also the written accounts found in Melville and Cook. Besides this mythical “lost” world, Barbieri also discovered people both open and innocent who shared with him the mysterious ritual of tattooing. After visiting archaic Madagascar and Tahiti, Barbieri finally discovered the Garden of Eden in the Seychelles, sensually photographed in the book “Equator”. The only absolute ruler here is the sun, casting patterns on naked skin through the palm fronds, or perhaps the Trade Winds that stir the almond trees. Barbieri now lives and works in Milan.