Olivo Barbieri

The Italian photographer Olivo Barbieri, who has been working for years with the effects of artificial light on urban and rural landscapes, photographed more than forty towns and cities between 2003 and 2013. Using long exposures for his pictures of cities ranging from Europe to the Far East, his photographs often resemble paintings. Thus, for instance, we take the viewpoint of a figure whose back is turned to us—recalling Caspar David Friedrich’s famous Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer (Wanderer above a sea of fog)—and gaze out over a nocturnal, brightly lit, “glowing” city. Lush colors and strong contrasts make these seemingly deserted worlds look surreal and extremely artificial.
For our Edition Hatje Cantz Barbieri has selected a photograph of Padua by night from 1986, whose allure arises from the contrast between traditional architecture and beguilingly colorful, artificial light. The signed and numbered edition is available as an inkjet archival print on the finest Hahnemühle paper and comes in a portfolio, accompanied by the current publication, Ersatz Lights.