Maison Européenne de la Photographie presents for the first time in France, a retrospective of Italian photographer Ferdinando Scianna, also a journalist and writer. The exhibition gathers a selection of one hundred and twenty photographs, from several sets made from the 60s and they have been the subject of many books, like Feste in religiosi Sicilia, Marpessa, Dormire, Sicilians or Mondo Bambino.

Born in Sicily, Ferdinando Scianna has gained from the age of 21 years with the publication, with the writer Leonardo Sciascia, books religiose Feste in Sicilia, which documents, in an aesthetic close to the Italian neorealism, the fervor of religious events in Sicily, and was honored by a mention in the Prix Nadar in 1966.

Recruited by the magazine Europeo, then he moved to Milan, before returning to Paris as correspondent of the newspaper. Multiplying the stories for the press, Ferdinando Scianna nonetheless continues to passionately photographing Sicily, delivering images with both bright and dark, reflecting the ambivalence that characterizes his relation to the territory where he was born, mixing attachment vibrant and lucid detachment.

Approached by Dolce and Gabbana, while still unknown, he tries to fashion photography in 1987. Marpessa is its first model, he photographs in the streets of Sicily, and later in other parts of the world. From this encounter is born as a book, Marpessa, who witnessed the passion that animates it in the performance of the staging, as well as in the story.

He joined at the same time, the Magnum agency, inducted by his friend and master Henri Cartier-Bresson. Decisive meetings that have punctuated his career, in fact coined the man: the imaginary photographic Ferdinando Scianna would not exist without Leonardo Sciascia, Jorge Luis Borges, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Claude Ambroise, Mario Giacomelli, Milan Kundera , Elliott Erwitt, Paola Bergne and others, including photographers and writers.

Car Ferdinando Scianna, a former student of literature and philosophy at the University of Palermo, fond of literature, particular interest attaches to books, natural and privileged support of his photographs, he loves to accompany a text by one of his friends writers. He had always avoided prudishly to explain his pictures, preferring to paraphrase those who with their words, accompanied in his journey. There is an exception at this exhibition, delivering, along with images, memories, thoughts and comments on his career and his work.

Photography is, for Ferdinando Scianna, a way of being in life, what the exhibition, organized into chapters according to a thematic, is accountability.