“Photographs can lie. Photographs can even tell the truth, although that is extremely hard. The common cliché holds that photography is the mirror of the world but I believe this needs to be reversed: the world is the photographer’s mirror” wrote Ferdinando Scianna.

“Viaggio, Racconto Memoria” is the title of the anthological exhibition dedicated to Ferdinando Scianna on the piano nobile of Palazzo Reale in Milan. Sicilian artist and painter of light born in Bagheria in 1943, Scianna was the first Italian photographer to become member of the prestigious Magnum Photos, the agency founded in 1947 by Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson and other well-known colleagues. The exhibition is on until 5 June displaying over 200 all-black and white photographs. This multifaceted exhibition project unfolds in a set-up and narrative exploring current events, war, travel, and religion. Through his photos Scianna presents an exhibition based on reality and daily life, unconsciously interpreting well-known works of art. Women, many women, and shadows and light, outlining captivating stories. In 1988, with Celia Forner, Scianna translates Rubens’ Susanna and the Elders, with the shadows of three men watching her unseen; or looking at the 1963 photo he took in Lentini of a man taking his clothes off, who isn’t reminded of The Baptism of Christ by Piero Della Francesca? So many are the places and faces that Ferdinando Scianna has immortalised with his photos. But there is no nostalgia, only beauty.

“My vision in black and white; I think in black and white. The sun interests me only because it creates shadows.”