MONSCHAU.- The Fotografie-Forum der StädteRegion Aachen is opening a major retrospective dedicated to Pietro Donzelli, one of the defining voices of Italian postwar photography. Titled Between Times, the exhibition brings together around 100 works by the photographer, critic and exhibition maker, offering visitors a contemplative journey through Italy during the decades after the Second World War.

The exhibition runs from May 10 to August 2, 2026, at the Fotografie-Forum in Monschau, with an opening on Sunday, May 10, at 12 p.m. in the Bürgersaal. Organized in close collaboration with Renate Siebenhaar and the Estate Pietro Donzelli, the show focuses primarily on photographs from the 1950s and 1960s, many of them taken in Italy at a time when the country was undergoing profound social and economic change.

A photographer of light, silence and transition

Donzelli’s black-and-white photographs capture a world suspended between tradition and modernity. Rural landscapes, city streets, workers, children, sailors and passersby appear in images shaped by stillness, dignity and a deep sensitivity to light.

Rather than presenting postwar Italy only as a place of reconstruction, Donzelli approached it as a landscape of human experience. His photographs reveal the quiet tension between past and future: the countryside facing industrial transformation, cities expanding into modern life, and ordinary people moving through moments that feel both specific and timeless.

Dr. Nina Mika-Helfmeier, curator of the exhibition and director of the Fotografie-Forum, describes natural light as one of Donzelli’s essential creative tools. In his images, she notes, light often appears soft and slightly diffuse, creating a calm, timeless atmosphere and guiding the viewer toward what is essential.

From the Po Delta to Naples and Milan

Among the highlights of the exhibition is Donzelli’s series Po Delta — Land Without Shadows, the result of years of travel and research in the Po Delta region. Over eight years, he photographed both the landscape and the people who lived there, creating images that go beyond documentary record. They carry a poetic force, turning daily life into something meditative and visually powerful.

The exhibition also includes work made in Milan, Donzelli’s adopted city, where he photographed everyday scenes as well as the Milan Trade Fair. These images show his interest in clear composition and unexpected perspectives.

His earliest photographic series, Aria di Napoli (The Air of Naples), began shortly after the war and occupied him for five years. In it, Donzelli sought to move beyond the familiar tourist image of Naples. His camera turned instead to vendors, sailors, street children, musicians, day laborers, street sweepers and shoeshine boys, whom he photographed with care and respect.

A key figure in Italian neorealist photography

Born in Monaco in 1915, Pietro Donzelli developed a passion for photography early in life, though his full commitment to the medium came later, in his 30s. His path was interrupted by military service in 1943, and the experience of the Second World War left a lasting mark on his artistic vision.

After the war, photography became for Donzelli a way to express feelings, thoughts and human connection. He was deeply committed to establishing photography as a serious, independent art form, and today he is considered one of the important figures associated with Neorealism.

His influence extended beyond his own images. Donzelli was also active internationally as a critic and exhibition organizer. He founded the magazine Fotografia and later served as co-director of the Italian edition of Popular Photography. His work is now represented in major public and private collections, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Museum Folkwang in Essen and the Collezione Farnesia in Rome.

An invitation to slow down

Walking through Between Times is less like moving through a historical survey and more like entering a quiet conversation with another era. Donzelli’s photographs look back at Italy in the 20th century, but they also touch on questions that remain familiar today: how people live with change, how communities adapt, and how beauty can be found in ordinary places.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue edited by Nina Mika-Helfmeier and Renate Siebenhaar, with an essay by Andreas Platthaus of FAZ. The catalogue will be available at the Fotografie-Forum for 25 euros.