Olivo Barbieri
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.
Olivo Barbieri
- Born
- 1954
- Nationality
- Italy
- Occupation
- photographer
- Fields
- photography · film
- Languages
- Italian
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
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.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Note VALÉORINE
Olivo Barbieri (born 1954) is an Italian photographer.
The photographer worked in Milan. Olivo Barbieri is active in film and photography.
Languages used include Italian. Works by the photographer are held at Museum of Modern Art and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 26 September 2026
VALÉORINE
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Olivo Barbieri. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q7088216 · wikipedia · Olivo Barbieri
In this article
Career
Career
The technique is called selected focus and the effect is that a picture of an actual city looks like the picture of a model.
The recorded working language is Italian. The field of work recorded is photography and film. Places of work recorded in the authority are Milan. Work by Olivo Barbieri is recorded in the collections of Museum of Modern Art and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
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 1998 and 1999, his work was featured in two exhibitions at the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal. 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).
Personal
Personal
He lives and works in Milan.
Books
Several books and catalogues have been published on Barbieri's work, including: • Paesaggi in Miniatura, Udine, 1991 • Notte, Udine, 1991 • Olivo Barbieri seit 1978, Museum Folgwan, Essen, 1996 • Illuminazioni Artificiali, Milan, 1995, Washington, D.C., 1998 • Notsofareast, Rome, 2002 • Paintings, Florence, 2002 • site Specific_Roma 04, Rome, 2004 • site Specific_Las Vegas 05, Toronto, 2005 • site specific_SHANGHAI 04, Bologna, 2006 • site specific_NYC 07, Carpi, 2007 • TWIY, Napoli, 2008 • site specific_JORDAN 04, Genova, 2008 • The Waterfall Project, Bologna, 2008 • site specific_BEIJING 08, Alcamo, 2008 • Site Specific, New York: Aperture, September 2013.
Films
In 2005 he also started two series of movies called Seascape# and Riverscape#, which include: • Seascape#1 Night, China Shenzhen, 2005 • Seascape#2 Castel dell’Ovo, Napoli, 2006 • 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.
Awards
Barbieri has won several awards and prizes for his work: • 2008 SEVILLA → (∞) 06, Nashville Film Festival, Best Experimental Short • 2006 site specific_LAS VEGAS, San Francisco Film Festival, New Visions • 2006 site specific_ROMA 04, Median und Arkitecture Biennale, Graz, Austria • 1992 Higashikawa Award, Japan, The Overseas Photographer Prize • 1990 Premio Friuli Venezia Giulia Fotografia, Italy
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1." reality of Olivo Barbieri" . LUX Magazine. March, 2013.
- 2.Site Specific – The Morning News.
- 3.Fergusson, WM. Fake Tilt-Shift Photography. The New York Times. 9 December 2007.
- 4.CRAF – Centro di Ricerca e Archiviazione della Fotografia.
- 5.Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA). 32 Italian Photographers: A Tribute to Phyllis Lambert. cca.qc.ca.
- 6.Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA). Photography and Transformations of the Contemporary City: Venezia – Marghera. cca.qc.ca.
- 7.Olivo Barbieri: site specific _ Montreal 04 Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA). 2010-06-14.
- 8.Sundance Channel – Site Specific: Olivo Barbieri.
- 9.Olivo Barbieri Biography.
- 10.Barbieri at Locarno Film Festival.
- 11.Barbieri – International Film Festival Rotterdam – IFFR.
- 12.Wexner Center for the Arts: Film/Video – Olivo Barbieri.
- 13.Olivo Barbieri – Sundance Film Festival.
- 14.2006 Winners – San Francisco Film Society.
- 15.BAM/PFA – Film Programs: Haunted Cameras: Recent Avant-Garde Films Cinema 2006.
- 16.BAM/PFA – Film Programs: Fugitive Prayers Cinema 2006.
- 17.BAM/PFA – Film Programs: At the Edge: New Experimental Cinema 2007.
- 18.MoMA FILM SCREENINGS: site specific_LAS VEGAS 05.
- 19.Programme Berlinale 2007.
- 20.Site Specific Olivo Barbieri – Aperture Foundation.
- 21.2008 Award Winners. March 2018.
- 22.The Higashikawa Award.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 17 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Photography
11,392 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Olivier Laban-MatteiPhotographer
- Olivier MeyerPhotographer
- Olivier RollerPhotographer
- Olivier ZabatPhotographer
- Olu OguibePhotographer
- Olympe AguadoPhotographer
- Omar BadshaPhotographer
- Omar Borkan Al GalaPhotographer
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Olivo Barbieri?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.