From Maneskin to Mick Jagger: the rock shots of Oliviero Toscani

The last, in order of time, were the Maneskins. It was the autumn of 2020 when Damiano David and his associates, a few months before their victory at the Sanremo Festival and then at the Eurovision Song Contest with that “Zitti e Buoni” which would have catapulted them to the roof of the world, had themselves portrayed by Oliviero Toscanithe great photographer who passed away tonight at the age of 82 after a long illness. The occasion was the release of the single “Twenty years”, with which the band launched by X Factor was looking for a relaunch after the physiological post-talent crisis.

Once the promotion of the debut album “Il Ballo della Vita” was over, Damiano David, Victoria De Angelis, Thomas Raggi and Ethan Torchio packed their bags and left for London, in search of new stimuli: “We had the opportunity to compare ourselves with many local realities. We went out in the evening and went to clubs, we listened to an average of three bands per evening: there is a different culture there in terms of the importance given to music, compared to Italy”, they would have said. .In “Vent’anni” the four musicians put into music the euphoria, but also the restlessness, of their age (at the time Damiano, the eldest of the four, was 21 years old, while Thomas was 19), between weight of judgments and uncertainties about the future.

The shot that Oliviero Toscani took of the four perfectly immortalized that phase of Damiano, Victoria, Thomas and Ethan’s life: it was a photo in pure Toscani style, which it portrayed the four naked and embracing. A mix of sensuality and fluiditythemes that Maneskin would soon embody with their music: “We were looking for something that represented the ideal of freedom we aspire to. The first thing that comes to mind when looking at the photo is that of sexuality, of love without prejudice – Victoria De Angelis, the bassist, told Corriere della Sera – but there is also a meaning about being completely naked, without filters”. The image was published on Instagram, where it was censored because the bassist’s breasts could be seen in the shot: “Just for a nipple? You’re not ready for the rest,” joked the group members.

Oliviero Toscani was somewhat specialized in rock portraits. Before Maneskin he had immortalized great protagonists of Italian and international music. Earning the esteem and respect of even true giants. As Mick Jagger. It was the 1973 when the Rolling Stones frontman posed in front of the camera lens of Toscani, who was already quite established in the world of advertising at the time. The photo was of a young Jagger in the year it came out”Angie”, one of the Rolling Stones’ most iconic songs: the portrait was taken and developed in ’73 by Toscani in his studio in New York.

Another iconic shot also dates back to 1973, the one he portrayed Patti Smith: the future Priestess of Rock was not yet famous when Toscani photographed her in his New York studio. The album “Horses”, which would launch her, would be released only two years later, in 1975.

A few months later another rock star showed up at Toscani’s court: Lou Reed. The photographer created a series of portraits for the former Velvet Underground frontman which were then used by RCA for the packaging of “Lou Reed Live”, the 1975 live album containing the recording of the rock star’s concert at the Howard Stein Academy of Music in New York in December 1973.

From international to Italian rock stars: in 2014 Olivero Toscani was called by Gianna Nannini to sign the photo shoot linked to an interview granted by the Sienese rocker to the Italian edition of Rolling Stone to present the cover album “Hitalia”. For the occasion, Nannini was photographed without make-up: “God is dead, I’m not”, read the title of the interview, which cited the cover of “Dio è morti” created for that project. Still in Italy, but outside the rock sphere, in 2012 Toscani had also designed and created the cover of “Viaggiatore immobile” by Remo Anzovino: “For an author of instrumental music, at the beginning of his career, it was a valuable help artistic inestimabilie”, the pianist recalled.