Olivo Barbieri (born 1954, in

Carpi, Emilia-Romagna Carpi (; ) is an Italian town and ''comune'' of about 71,000 inhabitants in the province of Modena, Emilia-Romagna. It is a busy centre for industrial and craft activities and for cultural and commercial exchanges. History The name ''Carpi'' is d ...

) is an Italian artist and photographer of urban environments. He is recognized for his innovative technique creating miniature still photography from actual landscapes by simulating shallow depth of field via the use of tilt-shift lens photography. Barbieri's technique simulates the shallow depth of field effect of

macro photography Macro photography (or photomacrography or macrography, and sometimes macrophotography) is extreme close-up photography, usually of very small subjects and living organisms like insects, in which the size of the subject in the photograph is g ...

by tilting the lens's angle to the back plane of the camera, which creates a gradual blurring at the top and bottom edges, or left and right edges of the filmed image. The technique is called ''selected focus'' and the effect is that a picture of an actual city looks like the picture of a model.

Career

Barbieri began his career in photography studying at DAMS (Drama, Art and Music Studies) at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the

University of Bologna The University of Bologna (, abbreviated Unibo) is a Public university, public research university in Bologna, Italy. Teaching began around 1088, with the university becoming organised as guilds of students () by the late 12th century. It is the ...

. After 1971, his interest in photography grew and, initially, he focused his research on artificial lighting. In 1978, he took part in several exhibitions in Italy and also abroad. In 1989 he started to travel regularly to the Far East, particularly to China. In 1993, 1995 and 1997 Barbieri exhibited his work at the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...

, among other international exhibitions, and in galleries and museums throughout Europe, North America, and China. In 1996, the

Museum Folkwang Museum Folkwang is a major collection of 19th- and 20th-century art in Essen, Germany. The museum was established in 1922 by merging the Essener Kunstmuseum, which was founded in 1906, and the private Folkwang Museum of the collector and patr ...

Essen Essen () is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and Dortmund, as well as ...

, Germany, devoted a retrospective to his work, which has been collected by museums worldwide. In 1998 and 1999, his work was featured in two exhibitions at the

Canadian Centre for Architecture The Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA; ) is a Architecture museum, museum of architecture and research centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is located at 1920, rue Baile (1920, Baile Street), between rue Fort (Fort Street) and rue Saint-Ma ...

in Montreal. In 2003, Barbieri started the ''Site Specific'' project (photos and films) describing cities like Rome, Turin, Montreal, Amman, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Shanghai, Siviglia, New York and others. He has realised several 35mm films within this project: *''site specific_ROMA 04'' *''site specific_SHANGHAI 04'' *''site specific_LAS VEGAS 05'' *''SEVILLA → (∞) 06'' *''site specific_MODENA 08'' Site specific_ROMA 04 was exhibited in 2005 at

Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago The Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Chicago is a contemporary art museum near Water Tower Place in the Near North Side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. The museum, which was established in 1967, is one of the world's largest contemporary ...

, at the Hayward Gallery of London and at Museo di arte moderna e contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto (MART).

Films

In 2005 he also started two series of movies called Seascape# and Riverscape#, which include: *''Seascape#1 Night, China Shenzhen, 2005'' *''Seascape#2 Castel dell’Ovo, Napoli, 2006'' *''Rivescape#1, Night, China Shanghai 2007'' Other movies realised by Barbieri are: *''Beijing Sky'', 2007 *''5 Colori'', 2008 *''TWIY'', 2008 *''Tuscany in 6 pieces'', 2010 Barbieri's films have been presented in the most important international festivals, including: *

Locarno Film Festival The Locarno International Film Festival is a major international film festival, held annually in Locarno, Switzerland. Founded in 1946, the festival screens films in various competitive and non-competitive sections, including feature-length narr ...

: 2004, 2005, 2008; *

International Film Festival Rotterdam International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) is an annual film festival held at the end of January in various locations in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, focused on independent and experimental films. The inaugural festival took place in June 1972, ...

: 2004, 2006; *Medien und architectktur Biennale Graz: 2005–2007; *Toronto International Film Festival: 2005, 2006; *

Wexner Center for the Arts The Wexner Center for the Arts is the Ohio State University's "multidisciplinary, international laboratory for the exploration and advancement of contemporary art." The Wexner Center is a lab and public gallery, but not an art museum, as it doe ...

, Columbus, Ohio: 2006; *

New York Film Festival The New York Film Festival (NYFF) is a film festival held every fall in New York City, presented by Film at Lincoln Center. Founded in 1963 by Richard Roud and Amos Vogel with the support of Lincoln Center president William Schuman, NYFF i ...

: 2006; *

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival has acted ...

: 2006, 2008; *

San Francisco International Film Festival The San Francisco International Film Festival (abbreviated as SFIFF), organized by SFFILM, is held each spring for two weeks, presenting around 200 films from over 50 countries. The festival highlights current trends in international film and vid ...

: 2006, 2007; *

Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA, formerly abbreviated as BAM/PFA) are a combined art museum, repertory movie theater, and film archive associated with the University of California, Berkeley. Lawrence Rinder was Director ...

, Berkeley: 2006, 2007; *

Walker Art Center The Walker Art Center is a multidisciplinary contemporary art center in the Lowry Hill, Minneapolis, Lowry Hill neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is one of the most-visited modern and contemporary art museums in ...

, Minneapolis: 2007; *

MoMA The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

, New York: 2007; *Jeu De Paume, Paris: 2007; *Tate Modern, London: 2007; *

Berlin Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival (), usually called the Berlinale (), is an annual film festival held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festival has been held every February since 1978 and is one of Europ ...

: 2007.

Personal

He lives and works in

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

Books

Several books and catalogues have been published on Barbieri's work, including: *''Paesaggi in Miniatura'', Udine, 1991 *''Notte'', Udine, 1991 *''Olivo Barbieri seit 1978'', Museum Folgwan, Essen, 1996 *''Illuminazioni Artificiali'', Milan, 1995, Washington, D.C., 1998 *''Notsofareast'', Rome, 2002 *''Paintings'', Florence, 2002 *''site Specific_Roma 04'', Rome, 2004 *''site Specific_Las Vegas 05'', Toronto, 2005 *''site specific_SHANGHAI 04'', Bologna, 2006 *''site specific_NYC 07'', Carpi, 2007 *''TWIY'', Napoli, 2008 *''site specific_JORDAN 04'', Genova, 2008 *''The Waterfall Project'', Bologna, 2008 *''site specific_BEIJING 08'', Alcamo, 2008 * ''Site Specific'', New York: Aperture, September 2013.

Awards

Barbieri has won several awards and prizes for his work: *2008 SEVILLA → (∞) 06,

Nashville Film Festival The Nashville Film Festival (NashFilm), held annually in Nashville, Tennessee, is the oldest running film festival in the South and one of the oldest in the United States. In 2016, Nashville Film Festival received more than 6,700 submissions from ...

, Best Experimental Short *2006 site specific_LAS VEGAS,

San Francisco Film Festival The San Francisco International Film Festival (abbreviated as SFIFF), organized by SFFILM, is held each spring for two weeks, presenting around 200 films from over 50 countries. The festival highlights current trends in international film and vi ...

, New Visions *2006 site specific_ROMA 04, Median und Arkitecture Biennale, Graz, Austria *1992 Higashikawa Award, Japan, The Overseas Photographer Prize *1990 Premio Friuli Venezia Giulia Fotografia, Italy

References

External links

Personal site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barbieri, Olivo 1954 births Living people Artists from Carpi, Emilia-Romagna Italian photographers Italian contemporary artists Aerial photographers