The Exhibition in Vicenza

If there's a photographer with a "rock" soul, it's Guido Harari. Not only because in 50 years of activity he has helped shape the imagery of rock music, but above all because his approach to the person being photographed has always been "rock": it's made of physical closeness, absence of hierarchies, mutual listening. The exhibition, then, is not meant as a self-celebration of a career that is certainly long and brilliant; rather, it's a statement of principle about a practice according to which photographing is, first and foremost, meeting the other.

Guido Harari's photos are special because they know how to capture that precise moment when the subject being portrayed lowers their guard, stops performing and reveals something unprecedented about themselves, beyond the stereotypes of the famous figure. It's like a game that requires complicity from both sides.

This isn't the first time Harari has exhibited his work with this approach: he's already done so, starting in 2022, in Ancona, Ferrara, Milan and Alba. The Vicenza exhibition, however, has a truly original distinguishing feature: the venue itself. The Palladian Basilica, with its Renaissance volumes, gave architects Giorgio and Giulio Simioni the chance to put together a decidedly spectacular layout, divided into seven sections.

The great thing is that the space works perfectly with the storytelling, like a musical score that unfolds starting from the brightly coloured bedroom of a teenager in the late Sixties, in search of inspiration. The walls of the room are covered with poems by Allen Ginsberg and writings by Pasolini, posters, photos, autographs, album covers by the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Who… and the Rokes. Harari, in fact, had a real passion for the Rokes' frontman, Shel Shapiro, and loves to tell the story of how, at the age of 12, during a seaside holiday in Jesolo, he went to interview him with the sort of presumption and naivety that only a teenager can have, thus kicking off his career as a photojournalist. It's fitting, then, that the exhibition pays tribute to Shel Shapiro, an important figure as both a musician and record producer, by inviting him to the exhibition's opening as guest of honour.

In the following section, titled Fronte del palco ("Stage Front"), visitors find themselves immersed in an installation that traces the first steps – and the first shots – taken by a seventeen-year-old Harari at rock concerts. The volume is turned up to the max, the crowd is buzzing, and the young photographer slips in "through the back lines", earning the appreciation of his clients. A few years later, he would go on to portray musicians backstage as well: among the exhibition's most memorable images are those of Pfm on their famous tour with De André in 1978-79. Thanks to the close rapport he built with Faber, we can now look with a certain wonder at the 1979 image of De André asleep on the floor next to a radiator, backstage at the Bologna arena. Staying on the theme of "backstage", also worth noting is the photo of Peter Gabriel, his face heavily made up, before his performance at the 1983 Sanremo Festival with "Shock The Monkey".

Since stages in the Seventies were rather dark – Harari recalls – the photographer's attention would focus on the musicians, on their physical presence, rather than on the scene as a whole. Indeed, over time the focus shifted more and more towards portraits, towards faces, which in his view are able to capture the true nature of an artist at the moment they "let their guard down" and reveal themselves. There's an entire section devoted precisely to portraits, often shot in very little time and with very little space, in hotels and at concert venues, even out on the street, using a sort of "portable studio": some images are extraordinary in the way they let people's eyes do the talking, as in the photos of David Crosby and Bob Dylan; others bring faces out of the deepest black, as with Nick Cave and Bob Marley; still others reveal an explosive energy, as in the vividly coloured portrait of Iggy Pop, or an extraordinary warmth, as in the embrace of Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson. The latter, incidentally, has affectionately called Guido Harari a kamikaze for his extraordinary gift for improvisation.

Particular attention is paid to Italian musicians: Vasco Rossi, Gianna Nannini, Franco Battiato, Eugenio Finardi, the aforementioned Fabrizio De André, Pino Daniele, Ivano Fossati. With many of them, Harari built a bond of trust and friendship that has lasted over time: this is what he calls "the good old days of photography". A striking example of this attitude is his collaboration with CCCP-CSI: on display is a 1994 group photo of the Consorzio Produttori Indipendenti, in which the musicians have shifting expressions – some laughing, some sulking, some staring seriously or curiously into the lens – letting us glimpse the temperament and mood of each of them. More than 30 years after the Breton production of "Ko de mondo", Harari is literally back On the Road with CSI, now grown men and women, for the tour that will kick off in Marzabotto in a few months.

Two other prestigious long-term collaborations are worth recalling: the one with Simple Minds in the second half of the Eighties, from "Once Upon A Time" to "Street Fighting Years" to the legendary live album "In The City Of Light"; and the one with Kate Bush, which involved Harari from 1982 to 1993 across three consecutive albums: "Hounds Of Love", "The Sensual World" and "The Red Shoes", as well as an extensive reportage on the set of the film "The Line, The Cross & The Curve".

It's in the Sala dei Cinquecento of the Basilica Palladiana, with its keel-shaped ceiling soaring 24 metres high, that the most spectacular part of the exhibition unfolds: after a largely enclosed path, it's as if the curtains of a theatre suddenly part. Visitors are left breathless in front of 24 suspended panels, each bearing a large-scale portrait. The overall effect is impossible to ignore. From there, visitors are free to wander through this open space as they please and "meet", through images that are never stereotyped, among others Frank Zappa, Kate Bush, Jeff Buckley, Tina Turner, Leonard Cohen, David Bowie, Lou Reed, Dario Fo, Enzo Jannacci and Giorgio Gaber. You can look them in the eye and walk all around them.

We could stop here, in the universe of the many musicians Harari has introduced us to; it should be noted, however, that from the 2000s onward his lens broadened its scope, focusing increasingly on actors, directors, philosophers, artists, fashion designers, scientists and activists, Italian and otherwise. All exceptional figures of our time who have told stories and raised questions: now it's your turn to discover them.

After all, they're all rockstars too: their photographs, also on display in the Sala dei Cinquecento alongside those of the musicians, are all, as Guido Harari would put it, meant to be looked at… at full volume.

For the press preview we had an exceptional guide: Guido Harari himself! It's worth noting that all visitors can access an audio guide narrated in his own voice throughout the exhibition: a decidedly unconventional and fitting choice, given the exhibition's distinctly auteur-driven perspective.

Ride the wave of great music

Add OndaRock to your favorite sources on Google Discover. Don't miss our reviews, milestones and latest news straight in your feed.

Follow on Google