Beirut (Place Martyres 1), 1991

Beirut (Rue Allemby/
Fakhry Bay), 1991

Beirut (Rue Nahr Ibrahim), 1991

 

The creator of spare, black and white photography, almost documentary in feeling, Gabriele Basilico (Milan, 1944), has always favored the large urban areas of contemporary metropolises for his work. Strongly influenced by his earlier architectural studies, Basilico observes the city with the attention and curiosity of one who is seeing it for the first time, searching for the familiar, which, without hiding the specific identity of the place, is present in every urban view.

The photographer, who gained attention in the early 1980s with his articulate work on the industrial zones of Milan, has a preference for areas that are apparently less appealing, but perhaps richer in history for precisely this reason.