Pacifists on show
Nothing has really changed. Man is still the same, as fragile and powerless as he always has been. This is the thought that comes to mind when looking at the portraits of people posing naked before the camera for photographer Gianni Berengo Gardin. Twenty-seven statement-making portraits taken in 1968 at the time of the great peace protests against the Vietnam War make up the feature simply entitled“The last pacifists in Milan. Leave us alone, we are vulnerable” and published in the 2nd-3rd 1968 winter equinox edition of avant-garde magazine Pianeta Fresco, founded by Fernanda Pivano and Ettore Sottsass, a leading tool of the great cultural, social and ideological turmoil of the time, particularly linked to the beat generation. Men and women showing their vulnerability and their desire for peace by posing naked, covered with just one belonging or their most prized possession, such as the self-portrait of Berengo Gardin with his son Alberto. Black and white photos with hairstyles, make-up and details that clearly show the time they belong to and which today are more relevant than ever. Archive photographs from the Contrasto journalist photography agency, with thanks to the co-operation of Renata Molho who featured them in an exhibition on the 1960s for the Fondazione Mazzotta, have been used by CP Company to make a 16-metre banner to show as a tribute to those who have not forgotten human fragility and want to defend human rights. All of this is on exhibition at the Milan showroom, at the same time as Cpictures, a photographic behind-the-scenes of the reality and activity of CP Company by four great contemporary photographers including Berengo Gardin’
Not In Our Name: An Explanation
