PHOTOGRAPHED IN THE SUN/ FOTOGRAFATI AL SOLE. Italian Summer between Vernacular Photos, Snapshots and Cinema in the XX century

From Sept 2 to Sept 16 2025, the studio-gallery Spazio e Immagini in Bologna presents the exhibition FOTOGRAFATI AL SOLE. The Italian Summer through Vernacular Photos, Snapshots, and Cinema in the 20th Century. 

Curated by Matteo Giacomelli

The exhibition is dedicated to the Italian Summer through a selection of over 30 original vintage photographs from the 1930s to the 1970s. It is a seamless narrative of Photojournalism, Vernacular Photography, Snapshots and photos from Italian Cinema from the 1950s to the 1970s, in the name of beauty devoid of intellectualism. The photographs on display tell the story of Italian beach civilization with its habits and customs.

On display are photos of stars and starlets of International and Italian Cinema in bikinis or just emerged from the water along with the Vernacular Photos of anonymous authors that portray families, bathing beauties and athletic hunks, immortalized trophies of summer holidays.

On one side, photojournalists and paparazzi portray Anthony Quinn and Brigitte Bardot shining in the sun like ancient myths, while on the other side two snapshots immortalize, as if it were an art performance, a group of friends inflating a mattress with their breath.

There are the seductive shorts and the repellant tank tops, the group photos in sculptural poses and the portraits of beach girls and guys who defiantly challenge the lens, sometimes with hilarious