Trained in Zurich
Oliviero Toscani owes his fame to his campaigns for the Italian fashion house Benetton, which were as cult as they were controversial. In Zurich, at the end of September, he visited the “Photography and provocation” exhibition at the Design Museum (Museum für Gestaltung) for one of his last public appearances. He trained at the Zurich School of Applied Arts.
Campaigns that have become cult
His photographs cause sensation, upset and outrage: photographer, creative director and photo editor, Oliviero Toscani has written history and revolutionized advertising communication. He owes his fame to his campaigns for the Italian fashion house Benetton, which are as cult as they are controversial.
These campaigns, which toured the world, notably featured a black woman breast-feeding a white child (1989), a man dying of AIDS and a nun with a cornet kissing a young priest (1992), people sentenced to death in the United States (2000), a young anorexic woman (2007). Several of its “United Colors of Benetton” campaigns were banned in Italy, but also in France.
Reviving the original provocation, the group shocked again at the end of 2011 with photomontages showing the greats of this world kissing each other on the lips, including the Pope and an imam. A 2012 calendar presented by Oliviero Toscani in Florence represented 12 penises, after that of 2011 which was composed of the same number of female pubes.
“Sociopolitical photos”
In this regard, he declared to Temps in September 2024: “My job is not to take beautiful photos, but sociopolitical photos. I was attacked by those who were afraid to look at the truth and change their way of seeing. But when faced with problems as obvious as discrimination or AIDS, we cannot compromise: we must have a point of view and fight.”
After training in Zurich, Toscani immersed himself in street photography in New York and joined Andy Warhol’s legendary Factory. In Europe, he made a name for himself as a fashion and advertising photographer. Visual provocation becomes his trademark.
