The images of Mario Ingrosso are strong, beautiful, moving. They capture the Italy of the Fifties and the Sixties, during the Neorealism period in which everything was changing forever.

In those years he depicts small towns in Italy like Pisticci or Frusci, showing the daily life of women going to Mass, kids playing on the streets, men at work or haggling in the market, but also the buzz of big cities like Milan. 

 Pisticci, Italy, 1964  (haggling in the market)

Milano, Castello Sforzesco, 1954 

Ingrosso catches instants, frames faces that recount a history in one look: a life of hard work but also of sharing laughter, enjoying a meal or the stealing a caress. A forgotten world that is not forgotten anymore thanks to his photos. A universe that bring us back to the core values of Italy, the land, the family, the love, the tradition, the religion and the sharing (even when there was very little to share).

 Pisticci, Italy, 1964 

It must have not been easy to travel through Italy, taking pictures, then: people were focused on surviving, on working hard, and were bothered by an intruder with a camera. But Ingrosso succeeds in capturing people without making them feel like actors, becoming part of the life. There's no elaboration whatsoever in his photos.

 Senise, Italy, 1978 

From the Italian at Stazione Centrale in Milan who tells of his conquests ("I didn't care if it was true or not, as long as I could take a picture of him", Ingrosso confesses) to the Grandmother, preparing the conserva (the fresh tomato sauce) with her Grand-daughter and from the peasants chatting to the "cirque" of Castello Sforzesco, with the miracle-man who breaks the chain, it's beautiful to sink in such a recent and yet so distant past. They are ghosts full of life thanks to his work, full of dignity and beauty. 

 Milano, Stazione Centrale, 1963 

 Frusci, Italy, 1965

It opens today, thanks to Mario Ingrosso and Michele Formiglio, the curator, the exhibition "Neorealismo - fotografie di Mario Ingrosso". On show at CasadellARTista at Portocomaro, Asti (Piazza Roggero 3) until May 13th, it recounts the Italy we need to bring back to our memories.

But the works of Ingrosso, born in 1935 in Asti, are ongoing, with projects about the constantly changing architecture of Milan and the gypsies (ROM?). Because great photography doesn't age, just as it doesn't the willingness and to curiosity to recount life. 

Written by: Elisa della Barba