Being Humans

With a selection of over 250 shots the volume recounts, through the eyes of 29 formidable photographers, the changes that have affected the world since the 1930s. A journey through images that stands out for the breadth of horizon and quality of the authors, often personally involved in the events and, therefore, more than just witnesses. Following the chronological thread of the narrative, a first section traces the crucial moments of the US economic crisis, the tragedy of the Second World War and the subsequent reconstruction; between the sixties and the eighties, the attention of the reporters focused on the great social and cultural upheavals, the Vietnam war, the affirmation of consumer society, the mafia and gender issues. Finally, at the turn of the new millennium, contemporary photographic research testifies to the emergence of those extra-Western cultures which, protagonists of a previously unknown centrality, raise a series of questions — such as those relating to the role of women in different contexts - of which the photographers here presented become advocates. Photographers: Berenice Abbott, Claudia Andujar, Diane Arbus, Eve Arnold, Letizia Battaglia, Margaret Bourke-White, Silvia Camporesi, Cao Fei, Lisetta Carmi, Carla Cerati, Cristina de Middel, Gisèle Freund, Shadi Ghadirian, Jitka Hanzlova, Nanna Heitmann, Graciela Iturbide, Dorothea Lange, Annie Leibovitz, Paola Mattioli, Susan Meiselas, Lee Miller, Lisette Model, Tina Modotti, Inge Morath, Zanele Muholi, Ruth Orkin, Shobha, Dayanita Singh, Newsha Tavakolian. Text in English and Italian.