La lunga strada di sabbia
For the 100th anniversary of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s birth, the Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Rio de Janeiro presents “La lunga strada di sabbia” by Paolo Di Paolo and Pier Paolo Pasolini: XXX photographs of which many unpublished, videos, documents, curated by Silvia Di Paolo, in collaboration with Fondazione Sozzani and under the patronage of the Centro Studi Pier Paolo Pasolini.
In 1959 Paolo Di Paolo was a 34-year-old who had been photographing for five years for Il Mondo, the monthly magazine directed by Mario Pannunzio. Pier Paolo Pasolini was a promising 37-year-old writer who had published The Best of Youth, The Street Kids and A Violent Life. He was not yet a film director.
In Italy, the economic miracle had just begun. The newspapers tended to offer to Italian families a microcosm of mythical characters as a diversion to the dullness and fear of war, emigration, and poverty. Arturo Tofanelli, director of the monthly Successo and the weekly Tempo, entrusted the two young men, who did not know each other, to do
a report on the Italian summer holidays that was published by Successo in three issues.
The writer and the photographer set off from Ventimiglia together, with the plan of traveling through the coasts of Italy to the south and climbing up to Trieste. But they have different visions. “Pasolini was looking for a lost world of literary ghosts, an Italy that no longer existed – recalls Di Paolo – I was looking for an Italy that looked to the future.
I conceived the title The Long Road of Sand meaning the strenuous road traveled by Italians to reach well-being and holidays after the War.” A complex, delicate partnership was born between Pasolini and Di Paolo, uniting them only for the first part of their journey. That first experience would later be consolidated in mutual respect and trust.
PAOLO DI PAOLO
Born on May 17, 1925 in Larino (Molise), Paolo Di Paolo moves to Rome immediately after the war and enrolls a course of History and Philosophy at La Sapienza University. He becomes close to the Roman art scene, in particular with the Forma 1 artists, developing his interest in the figurative arts through the photography. His debut as a photographer takes place as an amateur, meaning “photographing for pleasure”.
In 1954 his first photo is published in the cultural weekly II Mondo directed by Mario Pannunzio, in which, until the newspaper closed in 1966, Di Paolo is the most published photographer. Between 1954 and 1956 he collaborates with La Settimana Incom Illustrata and in the same period he begins a long-term partnership with the weekly Tempo, which lasts until its closure. Numerous reportages are signed with the most successful journalists of the time. As an Envoy, he travels to the Soviet Union, Iran, Japan, the United States, as well as all across Europe.
Thanks to the friendships established in the cinema and the art world, he creates private and exclusive photos of the greatest intellectuals, artists, actors and directors of the time. He concludes his photographic career in tandem with Irene Brin, a well-known costume journalist, focusing on fashion reports and jet-set reportages. With the advent of television and the paparazzi, the closure of many newspapers and the gossip-oriented press, in 1968 Paolo Di Paolo decides to end taking photographs and to devote himself to studies, taking care of historical editions for the Carabinieri Corps.
The archive, with over two hundred thousand negatives, remains hidden for half a century, perfectly preserved, until it will be discovered by his daughter Silvia in the early 2000s.