The elusive Dolce Vita: Italy in the photo classic by Gianni Berengo Gardina

Gianni Berengo Gardin is a world-famous photographer, a documentary filmmaker with a poetic look, a master who was admired by Henri Cartier-Bresson himself. For more than half a century, he has been documenting life on the Apennine Peninsula. His monumental photo archive is able to tell about the changes in the landscapes and society of Italy from the post-war period to the present day.

Gianni Gardin was born in 1930 near the city of Genoa, and after the Second World War he moved to Venice. At first, photography was his hobby, but after he received books by American photographers Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange as a gift, he was able to see a deeper potential in his hobby.

Gianni Berengo Gardin started working in photography in 1954. Initially, he worked as a photojournalist, after 1965-for the magazine Il Mondo, published by Mario Pannunzio. He also collaborated with major Italian and international publications, such as Domus, Epoca, Le Figaro, L'Espresso, Time, Stern.

His black-and-white photographs of everyday life, landscapes and photographs of architectural structures brought him international recognition, and also became the key to his commercial success. Berengo Gardin is the author of a large number of advertising images. In particular, he worked for Procter & Gamble and Olivetti.

Exhibitions of Berengo Gardin's works were held in the most prestigious halls of the world, in particular, in the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the George Eastman House in Rochester, the National Library of France and others. In 1991, a large retrospective exhibition of his works was held at the Elise Museum in Lausanne, and in 1994 his works were included in an exhibition of Italian art at the Solomon Guggenheim Museum in New York.

Gianni Berengo Gardin has published 210 albums of photography. In 1990, a large anthology of his photographs was published under the title "Gianni Berengo Gardin Fotografo".

In 2008, Berengo Gardin was awarded the Lucie Prize "as having devoted his whole life to the photographic art", and in 2009 he became an honorary doctor of the University of Milan.

On October 10, the Italian classic of photography will be 91 years old, but he still does not part with the camera.