Paolo Monti's photographs capture the affirmation of modernist aesthetics and the dawn of the golden age of Milanese architecture in the postwar period.
As Milan emerged from the wreckage of bombings in the aftermath of the Second World War, it had two key symbolic buildings: Torre Velasca by BBPR and the Pirelli skyscraper designed by Gio Ponti. A new city sprang up around them, thanks above all to the construction of the metro network. The gaps left by the war were quickly filled. The drive towards modernisation also affected the main train stations, which were used every day by workers living in the suburbs. This was the golden age of Milanese architecture, when professionals such as Luigi Caccia Dominioni, Vico Magistretti, Luigi Moretti and Vittoriano Viganò created an aesthetic of modernity that is still admired and studied to this day. Paolo Monti was perhaps the greatest chronicler of that era: he explored its most obvious aspects, yet without overlooking the quality of construction details, as viewed against the backdrop of a city changing decade after decade.
Paolo Monti (1908-1982) was one of the most important Italianphotographers of the twentieth century. In 1948 in Venice, where he had moved to work as an industrial manager after the war, he founded the photography association "La Gondola", which was to become the driving force behind a profound renewal of the Italian photographic language in post-war Italy. In 1953 he relocated to Milan, where he definitively embraced photography professionally and began to work fro the Triennale, architectural studios (BBPR, Gio Ponti, Albini and Scarpa), museums (Castello Sforzesco), publishers (Garzanti and Einaudi) and for artists (Baj, Crippa, Dove, Fontana, Capogrossi and Pomodoro). He later focused on documenting the landscape, architecture and historical-artistic heritage, combining his intense professional activity, including criticism and curatorship, with major experimental production (photograms, chemigrams and color photography), interfacing with key elements of contemporary artistic production.
