Publisher/Love Me Tender

Google翻訳
"Artificial" is a collection of works by Italian photographer Gian Paolo Barbieri (1935–2024). From the 1960s onward, he worked on numerous advertisements for major fashion magazines worldwide, including "Vogue Italia," and for prestigious fashion houses such as Valentino, Armani, and Versace, and is known as a master who elevated fashion photography to the realm of artistic expression. His magnificent direction, influenced by theater, classical painting, and film, and his beautifully constructed, sculptural representation of the human body established Barbieri's unique aesthetic. This book, published in 1982, is one of his early masterpieces, and, as the title suggests, it explores the essence of beauty not from natural beauty, but from light, makeup, costumes, poses, and stage design, based on the theme of "Artificial." The collection of photographs, mainly in black and white, freely crosses the boundaries of fashion, nude, and portrait, elevating the human body to the level of a sculpture or a character from mythology. With a foreword by Giorgio Armani and book design by Japanese designer Motoaki Okaku, this book is a fusion of photography, fashion, and design at a high level. It is a representative fashion photography book of the 1980s, and at the same time, a monumental work that encapsulates Barbieri's aesthetic style and laid the foundation for his later works.