This photographs are part of a wider photographic project about Milan’s architecture realized in 2014 and published in a guide (1) issued together with the opening of Expo2015.

The selected images portray some buildings of Modern architecture in Milan, more or less known, designed by some of the most influent Italian architects and built between the 30s and the 50s.

To the Expo arrival, together with the great urban transformations that have enriched the skyline of Milan with contemporary buildings, turning it into a global metropolis, the Modern architectures react maintaining their outstanding role in the image of the city, due to the formal elegance and the innovative character, still relevant.

Built mostly on the voids left in the city fabric by the World War II’s bombs, these architectures became grafting in the historical context, as a will of continuity with tradition but also as a strong symbol of renewal: these attitudes give back today, after more than 60 years, the result of a cultured operation of intervention in the city, a complex urban environment enriched with a noticeable harmony of contrasts, which is subject of an ongoing international interest.

Believing that every photograph is "a built representation of the reality that you want to communicate" (2), the choice of black and white supports in the process of elevation of the reality to an element with aesthetic value, continuously searching the balance with the responsibility for the value of historical statement of each image, since: "Photography as an artistic experience, not least in its documentary role and mission, has to do inevitably with beauty, with a visual need for formal interpretation, of an aesthetics translation of the world" (3).

The city is not perfect as well as these photographs, with electrical cables, traffic lights, cars, which help to understand the scale of the architectural and urban space, together with the human figures, that are depicted from a distance, living the city.

Bibliography

(1)  Carlo Berizzi, “Guida all’architettura. Milano”, DOM Publishers 2015

(2)  Grazia Neri, “La mia fotografia”, Feltrinelli 2013

(3)  Gabriele Basilico, “Lezioni di fotografia - Abitare la metropoli”, Contrasto 2013