Gian Paolo Barbieri

Gian Paolo Barbieri was born in Via Mazzini, into a family of textile wholesalers. It was in his father’s textile warehouse that he acquired the skills that would later prove helpful in his fashion photography.

He quickly took his first steps in the theatrical field, becoming an actor, camera operator, and costume designer together with the “Trio,” a theatrical group formed with two friends, in remakes of some parts of famous movies such as Tobacco Road, The Life of Toulouse Lautrec, and Sunset Boulevard.

Later on, he was entrusted with a small non-speaking part in Medea by Luchino Visconti, alongside Sara Ferrati and Memo Benassi.

American noir cinema constituted an important foundation for him, as he tried to figure out how the actresses could look so beautiful with the use of unique lighting, making them appear even more enchanting. Having never attended any photography school, he conducted innumerable experiments in his basement with light bulbs slipped into a stove pipe.

Movies gave him a sense of movement and the opportunity to bring Italian fashion from a studio set with a white backdrop to the outdoors, giving it a different soul.

With the opportunity to move to Rome, and thanks to the first photos shot in a pure “Dolce Vita” climate, Barbieri accepted the offer to work in Paris, since he was considered talented in fashion photography. He thus began his career as an assistant to the photographer of Harper’s Bazaar, Tom Kublin, for a brief but intense period, as Kublin later died of a stroke only 20 days afterward.

In 1964 he returned to Milan, opening his first photographic studio, where he began working in fashion, shooting simple samples and publishing photographic services in Novità, the magazine that subsequently, in 1966, would become Vogue Italia.

From that moment, he began his collaboration with Condé Nast, also publishing in international magazines such as Vogue America, Vogue Paris, and Vogue Germany.

Celebrities of the scene such as Diana Vreeland, Yves Saint Laurent, and Richard Avedon were part of his important history, along with collaborations with iconic actresses of all time, from Audrey Hepburn to Veruschka and Jerry Hall.

A fundamental milestone in his career was his experience with Vogue Italy, together with carrying out the biggest advertising campaigns for international brands like Valentino, Gianni Versace, Gianfranco Ferré, Armani, Bulgari, Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, Dolce & Gabbana, Vivienne Westwood, and many more, for which he interpreted the famous creations of the 1980s, in parallel with the rise of Made in Italy and Italian prêt-à-porter.

The 1990s led Barbieri to undertake different journeys to discover cultures without limits, driven by curiosity about faraway countries and ethnic groups, and inspired by nature and the most disparate objects, giving life to wonderful photographic books in which distant places and realities are depicted through his impeccable taste.

Even though the photos are taken outdoors and often appear immediate or fleeting, they turn out to be so “perfect” that they seem taken in a studio, blending the spontaneity of the people and places with the elegance and style that typically define him, managing to weave the spontaneity of ethnographic photography with the glamour of fashion photography.

Listed in 1968 by Stern magazine as one of the fourteen best fashion photographers in the world, he later won the Lucie Award 2018 as Best International Photographer of Fashion.

His works have been showcased at the Palazzo Reale in Milan, MAMM in Moscow, Erarta Museum of Contemporary Art in Saint Petersburg, Shanghai Museum, and Forte di Bard in Valle d’Aosta, to name just a few.

Moreover, some of his works belong to the collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum and the National Portrait Gallery in London, Kunstforum in Vienna, and Musée du Quai Branly in Paris.

In 2017, Barbieri established his own Foundation, whose mission is to preserve, safeguard, protect, acquire, archive, catalogue, authenticate, and promote the archive and the works of its founder, with the purpose of spreading photographic culture in Italy and worldwide.

More recently, Barbieri’s work has been purchased by one of the most important fashion photography collections in the world, the Nicola Erni Collection, as well as by one of the largest contemporary art collections in the world, the Pinault Collection.

A docu-film about the artist’s life was presented to the public in 2022. Produced by Moovie in collaboration with the Foundation, directed by Emiliano Scatarzi, and based on a script by Federica Masin and Emiliano Scatarzi, the film traces the artist’s life and opens a window onto the world that he has witnessed.

Gian Paolo Barbieri, l’uomo e la bellezza was shown at the Biografilm Festival in Bologna, where it received the Audience Award for Best Film. It was also shown at the Master of Art Festival in Bulgaria, where it won two prizes: Best Debut Documentary on Art and the award for Best Documentary in the Photography category.