Olivo Barbieri (born 1954 in Carpi, Emilia-Romagna) is an Italian artist and photographer of urban environments.
He is recognized for his innovative technique creating miniature still photography from actual landscapes by simulating shallow depth of field via the use of tilt-shift lens photography. Barbieri's technique simulates the shallow depth of field effect of macro photography by tilting the lens's angle to the back plane of the camera, which creates a gradual blurring at the top and bottom edges, or left and right edges of the filmed image. The technique is called selected focus and the effect is that picture of an actual city looks like the picture of a model.
Barbieri began his career in photography studying at DAMS (Drama, Art and Music Studies) at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Bologna. After 1971, his interest in photography grew and, initially, he focused his research on artificial lighting. In 1978, he took part in several exhibitions in Italy and also abroad. In 1989 he started to travel regularly to the Far East, particularly to China.
In 1993, 1995 and 1997 Barbieri exhibited his work at the Venice Biennale, among other international exhibitions, and in galleries and museums throughout Europe, North America, and China. In 1996, the Museum Folkwang in Essen, Germany, devoted a retrospective to his work, which has been collected by museums worldwide.
In 2003 Barbieri started the Site Specific project (photos and films) describing cities like Rome, Turin, Montreal, Amman, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Shanghai, Siviglia, New York and others. He has realised several 35mm films within this project:
- site specific_ROMA 04
- site specific_SHANGHAI 04
- site specific_LAS VEGAS 05
- SEVILLA → (∞) 06
- site specific_MODENA 08
Site specific_ROMA 04 was exhibited in 2005 at Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, at the Hayward Gallery of London and at Museo di arte moderna e contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto (MART).
In 2005 he also started two series of movies called Seascape# and Riverscape#, which include:
- Seascape#1 Night, China Shenzhen, 05
- Seascape#2 Castel dell’Ovo, Napoli, 06
- Rivescape#1, Night, China Shanghai 2007
Other movies realised by Barbieri are:
- Beijing Sky, 2007
- 5 Colori, 2008
- TWIY, 2008
- Tuscany in 6 pieces, 2010
Barbieri's films have been presented in the most important international festivals, including:
- Locarno Film Festival 2004,2005, 2008;
- International Film Festival Rotterdam 2004, 2006;
- Medien und architectktur Biennale Graz 2005-2007;
- Toronto International Film Festival 2005, 2006;
- Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio 2006;
- New York Film Festival 2006;
- Sundance Film Festival 2006, 2008;
- San Francisco International Film Festival 2006, 2007;
- Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley 2006, 2007;
- Walker Art Center, Minneapolis 2007;
- MoMA, New York 2007;
- Jeu De Paume, Paris 2007;
- Tate Modern, London 2007;
- Berlin Film Festival 2007.
He lives and works in Milan.