The Museo Nazionale del Risorgimento Italiano presents “RITRATTI. Collezione Florence e Damien Bachelot.” A look at humanity between myths, current events, and emotions through the Bachelot Collection, one of the most important private photographic collections in Europe. A journey to discover the evolution of the photographic portrait from Lewis Hine to Nan Goldin, under the direction of Tiziana Bonomo.
From the iconic photograph immortalizing Pablo Picasso attending a bullfight, signed Brian Blake, to the documentary force of Lewis Hine, who, in the first half of the 20th century, used photography as an instrument of social denunciation by capturing the faces of Italian migrant children in the United States to bear witness to the reality of child labor; to the most contemporary perspectives of Paul Graham, who photographs the invisible people living on the streets of America, and of an unprecedented Nan Goldin, through two images opposed by the rigor and eccentricity of their subjects.
These images span the 20th century to the present day, offering, through the human face, a visual narrative of extraordinary intensity. The portrait genre, long before the era of selfies and self-narration on social media, has followed its own path, reflecting changes in morals, identities, and worldviews.
From documentation to the political use of the image, to artistic experiments that have redefined the very language of photography over the decades, the exhibition is structured around four thematic sections: Myths, Emotions, Society and Current Affairs.
Alongside iconic portraits of figures such as Audrey Hepburn and Ernest Hemingway, there is a rare lightbox dedicated to Brigitte Bardot, designed by Elio Sorci, the famous photographer of La Dolce Vita. The exhibition also showcases the faces of everyday humanity, captured by the lenses of great masters such as Dorothea Lange, Saul Leiter, William Klein, Susan Meiselas, Elliott Erwitt, Nan Goldin and Mohamed Bourouissa.
The emblematic image of the exhibition, chosen by curator Tiziana Bonomo, is Lanesville (1958) by Saul Leiter: a photograph that captures a moment of intimacy and depicts a sleeping nude woman, delicately captured through a half-open door, with the sea and the road in the background. A work that concentrates charm, mystery and beauty, a perfect expression of the author’s inimitable style, whose intimate and delicate gaze on humanity was distinguished by an original use of color, capable of making the image vibrant while imbuing it with a suspended atmosphere, similar to a memory emerging from the past.
Among the works on display, the soldiers photographed by Gilles Caron in Israel (1967) and Ireland (1969) also stand out: figures embodying solitude, loss and humanity wounded by conflicts, becoming almost a universal symbol of the tears of war.
Artists featured:
Helena Almeida · Lola Álvarez Bravo · Diane Arbus . Bachelot-Caron · Nathalie Baetens · James Barnor Juan Barreto . Thomas Boivin · Édouard Boubat · Mohamed Bourouissa ·
Brian Brake · Gilles Caron · Henri Cartier-Bresson . Roger Catherineau · Philippe Chancel · Bruce Davidson . Sandra Eleta · Véronique Ellena · FLORE · Mario Giacomelli ·
Nan Goldin · Arlene Gottfried · Paul Graham · Sid Grossman .Harry Gruyaert · Dave Heath · Laura Henno · Nicolas Henry . Ken Heyman · Lewis Hine · Nhu Xuan Hua · William Klein ·
Thomas Klotz · Saul Leiter · Leon Levinstein · Helen Levitt . Vivian Maier · Susan Meiselas · Carl Moon · Ozier Muhammad . John Myers · Marvin Newman · Janine Niépce · Ann Ray ·
Alain Resnais · Sanford H. Roth · Ivo Saglietti · SMITH . William Eugene Smith · Elio Sorci · Paul Strand ·
Curated by Tiziana Bonomo.
Produced with the support of the main sponsor Banca d’Alba, with the support of the Piedmont Regional Council, the Deloitte Foundation, the patronage of the City of Turin, the Metropolitan City of Turin, the Turin Chamber of Commerce, the Institut Français, and the Alliance Française, and in collaboration with the Bachelot Collection, the Saul Leiter Foundation, and ArtPhotò, the exhibition presents nearly 90 original photographic works from the Florence and Damien Bachelot Collection in Paris, one of the most important private photographic collections in Europe.
” RITRATTI. Collezione Florence e Damien Bachelot ”
from July 11 to October 5, 2025
Museo Nazionale del Risorgimento Italiano de Torino
P.za Carlo Alberto, 8, Via Accademia delle Scienze, 5
10123 Torino TO, Italy
www.museorisorgimentotorino.it
