Overview

Site Specific is a summary of Italian photographer Olivo Barbieri's ten-year project to record the world's cities in aerial photographs. On the one hand, the book offers remarkable documentation, by one of today's most thrilling image-makers, of 25 cities throughout the world. On the other, it is a narrative of Barbieri's ever-evolving approach to photography and his thoughts about the nature of the medium. Presented chronologically, the book begins with the distinctive tilt-shift photographs of Italian cities with which Barbieri first established his reputation, and which launched a popular stylistic movement for selective-focus photographs. As the series continued, with portrayals of cities all over the world, Barbieri introduced other devices and approaches to distort perceived reality--such as playing with color, registration and the deletion or discoloring of particular details--to dramatic effect. The result is a remarkable photo essay about twenty-first-century urban space and about photography itself. Stunningly designed and presented in a luxuriously large format, the book is introduced by Christopher Phillips.

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9781683950738

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Reviews

When it comes to capturing the distinct flavour of a city, no one does it quite like Olivo Barbieri. - Wallpaper Playing with notions of positive and negative space, Barbieri isolates buildings to raise questions about how cities are planned and the building's role in the urban context. - The New York Times Barbieri's work is a reminder that photography can play a critical role in our understanding of architecture and urban environments. - The New York Times Site Specific is a stomach-twisting tour of familiar landscapes with references to modern art history - Wired

When it comes to capturing the distinct flavour of a city, no one does it quite like Olivo Barbieri. - Wallpaper Playing with notions of positive and negative space, Barbieri isolates buildings to raise questions about how cities are planned and the building's role in the urban context. - The New York Times Barbieri's work is a reminder that photography can play a critical role in our understanding of architecture and urban environments. - The New York Times Site Specific is a stomach-twisting tour of familiar landscapes with references to modern art history - Wired

Author Information

Olivo Barbieri is a key figure in Italian contemporary art who has been featured several times at the Venice Biennale. His work has been exhibited at institutions, including the Hayward Gallery, London; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal; and Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MART), Rovereto, Italy. His photographs and films are in the collections of the Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany; Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo, Seville, Spain; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; International Center of Photography, New York; and Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea (GAM), Turin, Italy. His work has been widely published; monographs of Barbieri's photographs include The Dolomites Project (2011) and The Waterfall Project (2008). Christopher Phillips is curator at the International Center if Photography in New York and is a widely published critic and photography historian. Previously senior editor at Art in America, Phillips has written many books, including The New Vision: Photography Between the World Wars (1989) and, with Wu Hang, Between Past and Future: new Photography and Video from China (2004).

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