A photographic exhibition at Bath”s Sion Hill Gallery looks at global style through exclusive portraits of iconic celebrities.
Text by Anna Battista
Photography represents reality through camera lenses, or rather, through the objects of reality that a camera reproduces. A photographic exhibition is usually a collection of such moments, chronicling historical events or defining moments in a person”s life. Yet it”s somehow difficult to think about static images and compositions of figures for an exhibition accompanying a conference at Bath Spa University entitled “Trans/National Clothing: Production and Consumption”, focused on the all encompassing theme of transnationality in fashion. This theme hints indeed at something in constant movement and going through continuous changes and mutations, and without boundaries.
In keeping with the dynamic aspect of this word, the 16 images collected in the exhibition “Global Style: Celebrities as Trans/National Icons” look at different themes in motion – travelling, shopping, filming or scouting for locations. There is something that unifies these images: the international actors, actresses, writers, singers and directors portrayed in these photographs – all taken between the “50s and the “60s – are all characterised by their own specific style.
Familiar icons are shown in various situations: Marcello Mastroianni seems so far removed from the famous Trevi Fountain setting of La dolce vita, yet he still looks impeccably stylish in his Persol sunglasses and tailored suit; Brigitte Bardot is carefully listening to fashion tips while shopping for a new pair of pumps at Dal Co”s shop in Rome; Alfred Hitchcock and his wife Alma Reville manage instead to build some incredible suspense even while scouting for a film location, while Peter Ustinov amicably smiles from his beloved car.
Objects, clothes and accessories often become as important as the celebrity portrayed: Maria Callas is a reborn elegant lady in her Biki suit; Ava Gardner may be hiding more than one secret about her Italian love stories behind her cat eye glasses while Elizabeth Taylor shopping for clothes and accessories in Portofino with her husband Eddie Fischer doesn”t suspect that, a few years later, global fame and a new love would completely transform her.
“Global Style: Celebrities as Trans/National Icons” is also the story of transhistorical identities: the icons portrayed in this exhibition still inspire new generations of film, literature and fashion fans all over the world, proving that being stylish doesn”t have anything to do with your passport or with current trends, it”s about your attitude to life, as Anna Magnani, exuberantly and ebulliently laughing even in front of the journalists gathered at the premiere of Pier Paolo Pasolini”s Mamma Roma, proves.
All the images collected in this exhibition were selected from the Rome-based Archivio Collezione Marco Garzia and are exhibited for the first time in the UK. “There is a timeless uniqueness about each of these images, but there is also a great authenticity in these photographs,” states Garzia. “Curators often come to the archive asking us to provide images focusing on La dolce vita moods. But this selection is truly special because it has an international flavour about it that, I hope, will inspire visitors their own “transnational” style in fashion and, above all, in life.”
“Global Style: Celebrities as Trans/National Icons” is at SionHill, Bath School of Art & Design Gallery, Sion Hill, Lansdown, Bath, until 15th September 2011.
