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3 Vintage silver prints each c. 20 x 30 cm (7.9 x 11.8 in) Each with the photographer's copyright stamp and various notations in unknown hands on the reverse LITERATURE Philippe Daudy (ed.), Naples. Photographies de Bruno Barbey, Lausanne 1964; Brigitte Lardonis (ed.) Magnum, London 2009, S. 39; Bruno Barbey, Les Italiens, Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris 1999, p. 69 [photograph 1]. The Moroccan-born Frenchman Brno Barbey worked on his cycle The Italians from 1961 to 1964 - it was his first large-scale, major, self-commissioned work, no longer a student's exercise, but an ambitious undertaking in the style of Robert Frank. It shows the 20-year-old as a committed, talented photographer with a knack for experimenting, seeking no less than a documentary strategy beyond reportage. Barbey saw the Italians as protagonists of a small "stage world", and he was out to capture the spirit of a nation in photography. His black Leica M2, which is also being auctioned (lot 073), missed nothing. He photographed street dogs, nuns, workers, children, beggars and Mafia members - none of them displaying any kind of camera shyness. This is particularly obvious in the picture showing three men sitting behind a pool table. Their gaze is fixed, their posture calm, but by no means reassuring. Although they are motionless, the three men seem to dominate the entire room. The pool table gives them the necessary distance from their surroundings - it keeps us at a distance as well. Years later, Barbey's photographic work focusing on Italy and the Italians - his "emotional journey", as he called it - culminated in the wonderful publication The Italians. As early as 1966, the cycle had opened the doors to Magnum to him.