Italy in the late 1950s comes to life again in the neorealistic and humanistic street photographs of Magnum legend Thomas Hoepker. The beginning of a unique photography career is now appearing for the first time in a photo book published by Buchkunst Berlin!

A summer book for all explorers, Italy lovers and photography enthusiasts!

The then 19-year-old Thomas Hoepker traveled regularly to Italy in 1956 and in the following years to take photographs with a Leica MP. His view is not that of a tourist, but that of an explorer. The result is clear, often cinematographic-looking image compositions that tell self-contained stories of encounters with people and their everyday rituals - with elements of compassion and humor. Hoepker photographs in the big cities, in Rome, Florence, Siena, Venice and Naples. He also travels intensively to the south of Italy, Calabria and Sicily. In these photographs, Hoepker finds a social perspective that will accompany and shape his work. His humanistic view and the film-like image compositions bring the photographs close to the neorealist cinema of the time.

And everything is very much the Italy of those years, of the beginning of mass tourism in the big cities, which was accompanied by a certain modernization, and the Italy of the simplicity and poverty of the south, which he documented in detail on several trips. An attitude to life somewhere between departure and tradition, an everyday kaleidoscope full of street scenes, religious parades or political demonstrations - everything becomes part of the narrative. During his trips to Italy between 1956 and 1959, a collection of more than 10,000 negatives was created, from which the book ITALIA presents an extensive selection of 124 photographs on 200 pages.

In the photographs taken in Italy between 1956 and 1959, Thomas Hoepker develops his photographic language and creates individual souvenir images. It was the beginning of a photographic career spanning more than 6 decades, which took him to travel all over the world and led him to become a full member of the Magnum Photos photo agency in 1989 via the magazines Stern and Geo. He was its president from 2003 to 2007. The focus of all his pictures and reports is people and their lives in social communities.

The photo book is accompanied by an insightful essay by author and director Raúl Morales Barcia, as well as an afterword by publisher and editor Thomas Gust.

Discover the early work of Magnum photographer Thomas Hoepker for the first time in a photo book!

Italy of the late 1950s comes to life again in the neorealist as well as humanist street photographs of Magnum legend Thomas Hoepker.

The beginning of a unique photographic career is now being published for the first time in a photo book by the Buchkunst Berlin publishing house!