New York

Mario De Biasi

1955 · Gelatin silver print · Photographs

Mario De Biasi first visited New York in 1955 on a fashion assignment for the Italian press, and his impressions of the city are suffused with glamour. Dispatches home to his employer, the Milanese illustrated weekly Epoca, are nocturnes in neon and steel—departures from the seasoned photojournalist’s signature humanism. Even here in Little Italy, a sleek fender varnishes his view of a cobbler’s storefront, where hand-lettered signage mirrors the car’s chrome insignia. Of the many photographs De Biasi made on his trip, this is one of only a few to directly engage the Italian immigrant community in New York. Perhaps distancing himself from the regional neorealist school in which he made his name, the photographer may have been positioning his work for a broader audience.

Artist

Mario De Biasi

Date

1955

Medium

Gelatin silver print

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Gift of W. Bruce and Delaney H. Lundberg, in celebration of the Museum’s 150th Anniversary, 2019