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The World in Focus: Customs and Lifestyles in Photographs from the Pirelli Historical Archive

The development of photographic genres and techniques has profoundly transformed our view of the world, revealing close interactions between art and society. Photography has a very special relationship with time, for it has the ability to shape our collective memory, providing insights into the present, and provoking thoughts and ideas about the directions the future might take.
The Pirelli Historical Archive not only bears witness to the life and history of the company, which dates back over 150 years, for it also allows us to trace its corporate values as well as broader shifts in tastes and customs, both in Italy and across the world.

The lifestyle of Italian families radically changed after the Second World War. With increased economic prosperity, the population gained access to new consumer goods and new forms of leisure and entertainment, leading to significant cultural changes. The modern concept of leisure began to emerge, and it was captured by Federico Patellani in a 1949 photoshoot featuring Pirelli tubulars: in his shots, we see young people on cycling trips out in the country, resting by a body of water after a long ride, but there are also parents with their children shown on dusty country roads or relaxing in the fields. There are scenes of social and everyday life, such as the Lambretta Wedding taken by Fedele Toscani’s Rotofoto agency: a young couple are seen leaving the church of San Martino in Villapizzone, with friends and relatives awaiting them on one of the Italians’ most popular means of transport in the 1950s. The Lambrettas are, of course, fitted with Pirelli tyres, all carefully checked by company personnel. Products bearing the Long P logo featured prominently in the era of mass motorisation and during the boom in motorway construction. Advertising hoardings lined the winding Autostrada del Sole, which opened in 1964, where motorists could stop off for a tyre change at Pirelli garages in the rest areas. The new middle class travelled the length and breadth of the peninsula in ever-greater numbers of cars, such as the Autobianchi A122, which appeared in a 1969 photoshoot amid Sunday picnics and city tours.

Pirelli products also featured widely during the summer holidays. Rodolfo Facchini photographed the Nautilus, a rubber dinghy made by the sister company Azienda Seregno, as it zipped through the waves with cheerful, carefree young people on board, and Aldo Ballo created still lifes out of inflatable mattresses, wetsuits and diving masks. Pirelli also became a big name in the world of fashion: photo shoots made by Azienda Impermeabili showcased the evolution of shapes, materials, and patterns – from classic loose-fitting raglan models to tight double-breasted tartan coats with lapel collars. These pictures have much to say not only about contemporary trends but also about the changing roles of women. As do those of Pirelli Revere’s lastex articles – corsets, girdles, and swimsuits – which not only shaped the models’ silhouettes but also came to symbolise the age of women’s liberation.
Scenes of everyday life appear in the photos that illustrate corporate welfare in the 1950s and 1960s: after-school activities for the children of “Pirelliani”, family scenes in the Pirelli Village in Cinisello Balsamo, and summer stays at holiday camps. This focus on the wellbeing of workers and their families is still today a cornerstone of the Group’s corporate culture.

Also Pirelli magazine, the pages of which hosted some of the most advanced cultural debates in Italy for more than two decades, is still an inexhaustible source of reflections on the transformation of society. Photo shoots by some of the greatest photographers provided visual analyses that were essential for many investigations into the most pressing issues of the time. These included “Televisione e cultura”, which explored the educational and cultural potential of the new medium. Ugo Mulas, a visual poet of everyday life and storyteller of the world, captured the impact of television on Milan’s skyline, which was now transformed by a proliferation of antennas. Mulas also explored the theme of work, illustrating two covers of the magazine: in 1961 he showed the heroic figure of a worker during construction of the Mont Blanc tunnel. This was part of a photoshoot devoted to the massive enterprise – pictures in which the deep black of the tunnels takes centre stage, perfectly rendering the “three years of night” that the miners had to endure. In the May 1964 issue, on the other hand, he showed skilled workers on the arms of the radio telescope of Medicina (Bologna), one of the largest in Europe. A kaleidoscope of geometric shapes, with paraboloids, pylons and electrical cables, naturally made by Pirelli. A “Schools in Italy and Europe” investigation explored various problems and possible solutions in the world of education. One of the many artists who explored the topic was Giuseppe Pino, who took photos of creative educational activities, such as mosaic work, painting and carpentry, which were designed to meet the educational needs of children with cognitive disabilities. Another was Mulas, who studied the relationship between school and industry by photographing the Istituto Professionale Piero Pirelli, which trained the children of employees who had just joined the company. He shows them doing practical exercises in the factory and bent over their books in the classroom during theory lessons. The magazine also offered plenty of critical analyses of tourism in Italy, with reports by Fulvio Roiter, Pepi Merisio, and Enzo Sellerio, and insights into Italy’s growing population figures. Saul Bass, an illustrator and graphic designer who worked in advertising and cinema, created the famous posters for Otto Preminger’s “Anatomy of a Murder” and many of Hitchcock’s masterpieces, including “Vertigo”. In 1965 he took a photograph of his daughter in her mother’s arms, which made it onto the cover of Pirelli magazine that year, and onto that of the Christmas issue in 1966.

Today, Pirelli continues to engage with society and its evolutions through ongoing interactions with the most influential international artists. This commitment is plain to see in the Pirelli Calendar and in Pirelli HangarBicocca exhibitions, as well as in the activities and publications of the Pirelli Foundation, in the Group’s Annual Reports, and in World, the company’s in-house magazine which has taken up the legacy of Pirelli magazine since 1994.

The development of photographic genres and techniques has profoundly transformed our view of the world, revealing close interactions between art and society. Photography has a very special relationship with time, for it has the ability to shape our collective memory, providing insights into the present, and provoking thoughts and ideas about the directions the future might take.
The Pirelli Historical Archive not only bears witness to the life and history of the company, which dates back over 150 years, for it also allows us to trace its corporate values as well as broader shifts in tastes and customs, both in Italy and across the world.

The lifestyle of Italian families radically changed after the Second World War. With increased economic prosperity, the population gained access to new consumer goods and new forms of leisure and entertainment, leading to significant cultural changes. The modern concept of leisure began to emerge, and it was captured by Federico Patellani in a 1949 photoshoot featuring Pirelli tubulars: in his shots, we see young people on cycling trips out in the country, resting by a body of water after a long ride, but there are also parents with their children shown on dusty country roads or relaxing in the fields. There are scenes of social and everyday life, such as the Lambretta Wedding taken by Fedele Toscani’s Rotofoto agency: a young couple are seen leaving the church of San Martino in Villapizzone, with friends and relatives awaiting them on one of the Italians’ most popular means of transport in the 1950s. The Lambrettas are, of course, fitted with Pirelli tyres, all carefully checked by company personnel. Products bearing the Long P logo featured prominently in the era of mass motorisation and during the boom in motorway construction. Advertising hoardings lined the winding Autostrada del Sole, which opened in 1964, where motorists could stop off for a tyre change at Pirelli garages in the rest areas. The new middle class travelled the length and breadth of the peninsula in ever-greater numbers of cars, such as the Autobianchi A122, which appeared in a 1969 photoshoot amid Sunday picnics and city tours.

Pirelli products also featured widely during the summer holidays. Rodolfo Facchini photographed the Nautilus, a rubber dinghy made by the sister company Azienda Seregno, as it zipped through the waves with cheerful, carefree young people on board, and Aldo Ballo created still lifes out of inflatable mattresses, wetsuits and diving masks. Pirelli also became a big name in the world of fashion: photo shoots made by Azienda Impermeabili showcased the evolution of shapes, materials, and patterns – from classic loose-fitting raglan models to tight double-breasted tartan coats with lapel collars. These pictures have much to say not only about contemporary trends but also about the changing roles of women. As do those of Pirelli Revere’s lastex articles – corsets, girdles, and swimsuits – which not only shaped the models’ silhouettes but also came to symbolise the age of women’s liberation.
Scenes of everyday life appear in the photos that illustrate corporate welfare in the 1950s and 1960s: after-school activities for the children of “Pirelliani”, family scenes in the Pirelli Village in Cinisello Balsamo, and summer stays at holiday camps. This focus on the wellbeing of workers and their families is still today a cornerstone of the Group’s corporate culture.

Also Pirelli magazine, the pages of which hosted some of the most advanced cultural debates in Italy for more than two decades, is still an inexhaustible source of reflections on the transformation of society. Photo shoots by some of the greatest photographers provided visual analyses that were essential for many investigations into the most pressing issues of the time. These included “Televisione e cultura”, which explored the educational and cultural potential of the new medium. Ugo Mulas, a visual poet of everyday life and storyteller of the world, captured the impact of television on Milan’s skyline, which was now transformed by a proliferation of antennas. Mulas also explored the theme of work, illustrating two covers of the magazine: in 1961 he showed the heroic figure of a worker during construction of the Mont Blanc tunnel. This was part of a photoshoot devoted to the massive enterprise – pictures in which the deep black of the tunnels takes centre stage, perfectly rendering the “three years of night” that the miners had to endure. In the May 1964 issue, on the other hand, he showed skilled workers on the arms of the radio telescope of Medicina (Bologna), one of the largest in Europe. A kaleidoscope of geometric shapes, with paraboloids, pylons and electrical cables, naturally made by Pirelli. A “Schools in Italy and Europe” investigation explored various problems and possible solutions in the world of education. One of the many artists who explored the topic was Giuseppe Pino, who took photos of creative educational activities, such as mosaic work, painting and carpentry, which were designed to meet the educational needs of children with cognitive disabilities. Another was Mulas, who studied the relationship between school and industry by photographing the Istituto Professionale Piero Pirelli, which trained the children of employees who had just joined the company. He shows them doing practical exercises in the factory and bent over their books in the classroom during theory lessons. The magazine also offered plenty of critical analyses of tourism in Italy, with reports by Fulvio Roiter, Pepi Merisio, and Enzo Sellerio, and insights into Italy’s growing population figures. Saul Bass, an illustrator and graphic designer who worked in advertising and cinema, created the famous posters for Otto Preminger’s “Anatomy of a Murder” and many of Hitchcock’s masterpieces, including “Vertigo”. In 1965 he took a photograph of his daughter in her mother’s arms, which made it onto the cover of Pirelli magazine that year, and onto that of the Christmas issue in 1966.

Today, Pirelli continues to engage with society and its evolutions through ongoing interactions with the most influential international artists. This commitment is plain to see in the Pirelli Calendar and in Pirelli HangarBicocca exhibitions, as well as in the activities and publications of the Pirelli Foundation, in the Group’s Annual Reports, and in World, the company’s in-house magazine which has taken up the legacy of Pirelli magazine since 1994.