For over twenty years, the Italian photographer Olivo Barbieri has focused on the documentation of cities and their inhabitants. Shot from helicopters on a combination of 35mm film and high-definition video, at first glance the scenes in Barbieri’s photographs and films appear as detailed models rather than footage capturing the real. Through the manipulation of focus, and by playing with the viewer’s sense of scale and distance, Barbieri uses the lens to redefine our understanding of urban space.
Olivo Barbieri (born 1954 in Carpi, Emilia-Romagna) is an Italian artist and photographer. Barbieri has photographed and produced 35mm short films of numerous sites around the world ranging from the Iguazu Falls at the Argentinean-Brazil border to the Las Vegas cityscape. In 1993, 1995 and 1997 Barbieri exhibited his work at the Venice Biennale, and he has exhibited in galleries and museums throughout Europe, North America, and China. In 1996, the Museum Folkwang in Essen, Germany, devoted a retrospective to his work. His photographs and films are held in museum collections worldwide.