Ferdinando Scianna (Bagheria, Palermo 1943) has always been guided a little by chance, as when in 1963 Leonardo Sciascia visited and appreciated his first exhibition, and a lot by determination, which pushed him to introduce himself to the writer who would become his great friend and shortly thereafter the extender of the text for “ Feste religiose in Sicilia,” the first of the many beloved books he would publish. Turning professional, for L' Europeo he was a correspondent in Paris where he met Cartier-Bresson, who introduced him to Magnum, of which he became a member in 1989. Always working in black and white, he combines magnificent reportages and appreciated portraits of great intellectuals with his collaboration with Dolce and Gabbana:he thus also established himself in the fashion world by publishing in Vogue and Grazia.

It is difficult to pin Ferdinando Scianna down to a single definition, even though ‘photojournalist’ is the term most commonly used. This is confirmed by his vertical shot of the Sicilian tarantella, taken to emphasise the movement of the dancers, each heading in a different direction; yet the photograph he took of Mario Soldati reminds us that every good reporter must be capable of mastering the art of portraiture. In reality, Ferdinando Scianna uses it to give expression to his curiosity about the people he knows and respects: his archive contains countless photographs of this kind, in which the subjects always look directly at the camera, as if to reaffirm the strong bond established with the photographer and friend.