Oliviero Toscani, iconic photographer died at 82: he was known for his provocative anti-racism campaigns

Oliviero Toscani was an iconic photographer. Throughout his six-decade career, he used his images to address issues such as racism, religion, sex, hunger, the death penalty, war, anorexia, and violence. His photographs served as powerful tools of protest, often carrying more weight than any slogan.

Oliviero Toscani's Bold Legacy

Toscani's controversial campaigns

Some of his most famous pieces of work were "Priest and Nun Kiss" from 1999, 'Three Hearts White/Black/Yellow' from 1996, 'No-Anorexia' from 2007 with model Isabelle Caro, 31 kilograms, who died a few years later.

He also took many shots for the fashion world, like the famous close-up of Donna Jordan's buttocks with the writing 'Who loves me follows me' for the Jesus Jeans campaign of 1973, which earned him his first major scandal but also international fame.

Oliviero Toscani, dead at 82, has signed campaigns capable of arousing debate and criticism for their rawness or nonconformity. After working for magazines like Vogue, L'uomo, Harper's Bazaar, in the '80s he signed a collaboration that marked his career forever, the one with Benetton. He collaborated with the brand from 1982 to 2000 and then from 2018 to early 2020.

Benetton campaigns against racism

The first Benetton campaign "The horizontal image" showed a group of boys and girls of different ethnicities, smiling. The background was completely white and a slogan says: «All the colors of the world».

Oliviero Toscani's Struggle with Rare Disease

This campaign won numerous awards worldwide, while also attracting some criticism. However, even the negative comments were seen by Toscani and Luciano Benetton as "a sign that the path they had taken was the right one", and their collaboration continued since then. In the following years, they launched a series of others controversial campaigns, portraing subjects as a Russian boy and an American girl hugging, or a a Palestinian boy and an arab boy holding a globe together. The figures were always set against a white background, amplifying diversity and provocation through striking contrast. These ingredients become an unmistakable mark of United Colors of Benetton communication. Also 'All the colors of the world' - the slogan of Toscani's first campaign - transformed into the new name of the brand: United Colors of Benetton. For Benetton, Toscani also created, in 1992, Angel-Devil, an incredible shot featuring a white child with blonde hair - similar to a cherub - and a black child with a hairstyle that simulates small horns on his head reminiscent of the devil's figure.

The photographer admitted to having searched for years for the right subjects to represent this strong concept of opposition, linked to the theme of racism. In 1992, the advertising subject of another campaign for Benetton was a mafia murder. Against racism Toscani has provocatively played several times with the contrast between white and black, a reference to the theme of racism. Not forgetting the frames of the shocking spot against the Saturday night massacres produced by Toscani in 1997.

And again the three human hearts with the writings 'White', 'Black', and 'Yellow': the theme was racism and the aim was to convey to the observer the concept of union and equality that distinguishes every people in the world without distinction.

In 1999, he chose a bloodstain as the logo of the worldwide campaign for Benetton in support of Kosovo refugees.

In 2018, his choice to use a photo of migrants just saved, landed from a ship as an image of a new campaign for the fashion house caused a stir: a squalid operation, Salvini labeled the shot, inviting to boycott the brand. Previously, the series of shots, always made for Benetton, with protagonists some death row inmates in the United States had caused scandal: Toscani was accused by the State of Missouri of fraudulent misrepresentation for portraying them with deception, without specifying his purpose. Violence against women For the weekly Donna Moderna, Toscani devised a campaign against violence against women featuring a naked boy and girl next to the words 'executioner' and 'victim'. In 2009, banana and pea were instead the protagonists of a campaign against bullying funded by the Province of Bolzano in the context of an initiative against all forms of extremism.

Debate and criticism also for billboards featuring used condoms and a newborn. The unconventional style of his photographs is linked to a curious anecdote: in 1965 Toscani was called by Vogue to make a portrait of Carmelo Bene, who arrived in the studio drenched from a storm and stood in front of the camera with his jacket all crooked and his pants fly almost open. An image captured by the photographer as a symbol of alternative, out-of-the-box beauty.

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