Olivo Barbieri

Site Specific is a summary of Olivo Barbieris ten-year project to record the worlds cities in aerial photographs. On the one hand, the book offers remarkable documentation, by a thrilling image-maker, of twenty-five cities throughout the world. On the other, it is a narrative of Barbieris evolving approach to photography and his thoughts about the nature of the medium. Presented chronologically, the photographs begin with the distinct tilt-shift photographs of Italian cities with which Barbieri first established his reputationand that launched a popular stylistic movement for selective-focus photographs. During the series, he later introduced other devices and approaches to distort perceived realitysuch as playing with color, registration, and the deletion or discoloring of particular detailsto dramatic effect. The result is a remarkable photo essay about twenty-first-century urban space and about photography itself. The book is introduced by Christopher Phillips and features Barbieris city-by-city commentary. Aperture will present and tour an exhibition of the work beginning in the fall of 2013.