Enzo Arnone – Il teatro delle strade Milano 1969 – 1984

Enzo Arnone (Cortina d’Ampezzo, 1945) is an Italian photographer who has made Milan his home. After studying art in Venice and graduating from the Brera Academy, he began his career as a photographer, working on news reports and commercial projects for publishers. He specialized in photography for children and, together with Bruno Munari, published Ciccì Coccò, a book that was recognized and reprinted abroad.

From the 1970s onwards, he developed personal photography projects on various topics between his professional commitments and trips abroad.

Il Teatro delle Strade (The Theater of the Streets) is a story born from a selection of unpublished analog photographs from his archive, all of which have the urban environment of Milan as their common thread.

Starting from the suburbs and moving to the streets of the city center, the author passionately pursues two types of unusual and interesting characters with whom he feels an affinity. On the one hand, there are the underdogs, the defeated, the clowns, all those shining anti-heroes who, as in a ballad, by choice or by nature, remain tied to a world that is fading away; on the other, there are the lively and rebellious children and young people who embody the optimistic and utopian spirit of those years.

The shots are fueled by curiosity without any politicization: in all his portraits, Enzo reaffirms the dignity of the individual, human diversity in all its fragility and contradiction, standing up against the stigmas imposed by society.