Bruno Barbey : "The Italians, 1962-1965"

In his work, Bruno Barbey does not merely content himself with accepting the gifts of chance. He strives to show representatives of all classes and all social strata in their typical environment, in order to make a diagnosis of the soul, of the temperament and the social structure of a nation. The particularity of the photographer Bruno Barbey lies in the extremely poetic overall atmosphere of his work. His attitude is one of respect towards humanity, with a highly developed sense of pictorial quality.

In this respect, Bruno Barbey's work is likened to that of Robert Frank and René Burri, who one after the other, were published by Robert Delpire (The Americans by Robert Frank in 1958, The Germans by René Burri in 1962). The Italians by Bruno Barbey, which is to become part of this collection, are the protagonists in the little theater of the world, and bear the idea of capturing the spirit of a nation in a photographic essay.

Manual Gasser
Editor-in-chief of the magazine DU, in Zurich.