Photography/graphic design

	Aldo Ballo – Photography & Design Nov. 12, 2002 – March 16, 2003
	Aldo Ballo è stato il terzo occhio di intere generazioni di architettie designers." (Adolfo Natalini) There are famous photographs of objects and advertising shots that have become lodged in our memories. Famous photographers are often behind them, of whom one would not normally expect such work – after all they have gone down in history as photographers of important artistic merit: Man Ray, Irving Penn, Paul Strand, Margaret Bourke-White, Germaine Krull, Erwin Blumenfeld, Albert Renger-Patzsch….The objects live through the images of them that are visible all over. This is how legends, including those in the history of design, are born. One of the most influential 20th century protagonists is Aldo Ballo. The images he created of designed objects will live on – images that went round the world and made the innovative forms world famous. His photographs of products have accompanied and captured the trends in Italian industrial design since the 1950s. For generations of architects and designers he has effectively been a third eye. His client base reads like a Who's Who of the most innovative members of his trade: from Allessandro Mendini, Marco Zanuso, Ettore Sottsass, Richard Sapper, Mario Bellini, Nanda Vigo, Joe Colombo to Angelo Mangiarotti, Enzo Mari, Gae Aulenti, Antonio Citterio, Achille & Piergiacomo Castiglioni, Gaetano Pesce, Afra & Tobia Scarpa, Philippe Starck, and avant-garde groups such as Gruppo Strum, Studio Alchimia, Memphis, Superstudio etc. Renowned manufacturers such as Olivetti, Pirelli, Cassina, B & B, Zanotta, Arflex, Flos, Artemide, Kartell, Alessi and many others all entrust their advertising campaigns to Aldo Ballo. Born in Sciacca near Agrigento, Sicily in 1928, Ballo studied initially at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera in Milan before enrolling on an architecture course at the Polytechnic. Around 1950 he turned his attention to journalistic photography, completing his training at the well-known "Roto Foto" agency under Fedele Toscani, the father of Oliviero and Marirosa Toscani, who was to become his wife. Together with her, in 1953 he founded Studio Ballo in Milan. The timing could not have been better because in the 1950s Italy, like Germany, was experiencing an "economic miracle". The need for modern, progressive everyday objects resulted in a reform of everyday aesthetics. From the very outset Italian designers succeeded in imparting an aura of culture in their objects. Aldo Ballo chronicles this design story. His unpretentious, matter-of-fact "portraits" of useful objects brings out their "personality", highlight their material presence and expressive power and succeed in conveying the creator’s mindset with regard to the shape. The product has absolute priority and enjoys the photographer's undivided attention. Studio Ballo gradually produced an extensive portfolio of photographs depicting industrial design, what Walter Guadagnini referred to as a "Baedecker encyclopedia of perfect industrial photography" – from bel design to radical design, conventional design to anti-design, encompassing the entire spectrum of creative design power in Italy in the second half of the 20th century. It was Ballo's sensitive photographic works, with their high degree of accuracy and clear-cut statement that in fact drew attention to photographic representation, and it was no coincidence that this occurred at the same time as new print media were being established (Stile ed industria, Rivista dell'Arredamento, Abitare, Ottagnono, Casa Vogue, Il Mobile Italiano etc.). As such there is hardly a single publication about this design era that is not dominated by Ballo reproductions. Even if the products have long since disappeared from the market, Ballo's photographs ensure that they live on. With this studio exhibition the Neue Sammlung is presenting for the first time ever in Germany a selection of the extensive collection.