MILAN — Giorgio Armani has always known his own mind, which made shooting his campaigns a seamless activity, according to Aldo Fallai.
The photographer should know, as he has worked with the designer since the mid-1970s, before Armani even set up his own namesake fashion group and was freelancing and collaborating with brands such as Tendresse and Sicons.
Armani is now shining the spotlight on the photographer by staging the exhibition “Aldo Fallai for Giorgio Armani, 1977-2021” at his Silos space, opening with a preview on Monday evening and to the public on Tuesday.
Curated by the designer, his sister Rosanna Armani and his longtime collaborator Leo Dell’Orco, the exhibition over two floors runs through almost three decades of uninterrupted artistic partnership, and underscores the timelessness of the images, their precise aesthetic — entirely in line with that of Armani’s — and cohesive narration, so much so that the 250 photos are not displayed in chronological order and are without captions.
“Working with Aldo allowed me from the very beginning to transform the vision I had in my mind into real images: to communicate that my clothes were not just made in a certain way with certain colors and materials, but that they represented a way of life,” Armani said. “Because style, for me, is a total form of expression. Together, with a constant fluid and concrete dialogue, we created scenes of life, evoked atmospheres and sketched portraits full of character. Today, looking back at everything we did, I myself am struck by the power that these shots still emanate, and by Aldo’s great ability to capture the nuances of personality.”
An image from the Giorgio Armani spring 1987 campaign by Aldo Fallai.
The Florentine Fallai met Armani as a graduate from the Institute of Art, working as a graphic designer, but he quickly realized photography was his true calling.
“We immediately understood each other, so everything came quite naturally in an agile way, and — quite simply — I liked his clothes,” Fallai told WWD ahead of the exhibit’s inauguration. “Also, he trusted me because we both wanted to highlight a certain style linked to character and personality and this translated into images that appear just as relevant today as they did yesterday,” hence the lack of chronological sequence of the works, in sync with Armani’s oft-repeated wish to offer timeless collections with value.
Producing photos without special effects was also appealing to the public, Fallai contended.
Although the shoots were always meticulously planned ahead, just as naturally, some photographs were the result of last-minute changes, as Fallai recalled the unexpected heavy rain in Palermo that drove them to shoot inside a circus, Italy’s famed Circo Togni. This resulted in the image of a shirtless male model wearing denim pants and holding a tiger cub for an Armani Jeans campaign.
An image from the Armani Jeans spring 1981 campaign by Aldo Fallai.
Fallai’s photos for Armani reflected the social changes of those years, with women wearing power suits, and men opting for the designer’s deconstructed jackets, conceiving a very precise imagery, often inspired by Armani’s beloved black-and-white movies or late Renaissance and Mannerist art.
An image from the Emporio Armani spring 1984 campaign by Aldo Fallai.
Fallai made frequent use of black-and-white photos and he explained this choice as “allowing a narrative abstraction, where telling the story is more important and is open to interpretation.”
While the campaigns succeeded in showing the clothes, the images can be considered portraits that focus on the character of the models, as Fallai noted he has always shunned gratuitous nudity or of-the-moment, trendy celebrities — in sync with Armani.
An image from the Emporio Armani fall 1994 campaign by Aldo Fallai.
Pointing to this alignment with the designer, Fallai said “the work was never about me, that would have been idiotic and I have always tried to mediate our interests.”
He humbly admitted he never expected Armani would dedicate a monographic exhibition to his work, which actually totals thousands of photos for the designer’s campaigns. “It was a beautiful surprise and I am truly honored.” The exhibit runs until Aug. 11.
A select number of Fallai photos were previously displayed at Armani/Silos together with those by Kurt and Weston Markus, Tom Munro, David Sims and Richard Phibbs as part of the “Emotions of the Athletic Body,” unveiled in September 2016.
Other photography exhibitions at Silos included those dedicated to Guy Bourdin, Charles Fréger, Peter Lindbergh, Larry Fink and Sarah Moon, among others.
At Armani/Silos, the exhibition “Aldo Fallai for Giorgio Armani, 1977-2021.”