La lunga strada di sabbia

Published for the first time in over sixty years, the photographic reportage The long road of sand, is an extensive survey carried out in 1959 by Paolo Di Paolo, portraying the summer holidays of Italians. The original assignment, created together with Pier Paolo Pasolini who wrote the texts, narrates the coasts of Italy from the western to the eastern boarders. A journey destined to enter the history of literature and the history of photography.

The extraordinary illustrated book "La lunga strada di sabbia" is the unprecedented documentation of a travel reportage by the writer and later director Pier Paolo Pasolini and the photographer Paolo Di Paolo.  The two, who had never met before, travel south along the coast from Ventimiglia to Trieste. While Pasolini, the writer, is looking for a world of lost literary ghosts, Di Paolo wants to depict an Italy that looks to the future. The title "La lunga strada di sabbia", which translates as "The long road of sand", also comes from him. It is precisely these contrasting approaches that will later give this travel reportage its very special significance as a witness to this era.

The book presentation will be attended by Silvia di Paolo, Bruce Weber, Olivier Saillard and Carla Sozzani.