Oliviero Toscani, the man behind the provocative Benetton ads, has died aged 82

Oliviero Toscani, an Italian photographer who used images of AIDS patients and death row inmates to push the boundaries of fashion imagery as the creator of Benetton’s advertising campaigns, died on Monday. He was 82 years old.

His family announced his death today Instagram. They did not say where he died or the cause of death, but Mr. Toscani in August he said The Italian newspaper “Corriere della Sera” diagnosed him amyloidosisa rare and incurable condition in which protein accumulates.

His shock and fear campaigns In the 1980s and 1990s, he helped transform Benetton from a small Italian brand into a global fashion powerhouse. provocateur advertisements that blur the lines between marketing and activism, high art and consumer industry.

In one ad, an AIDS patient is lying on his back, mouth open, hands folded across his chest. His black eyes passed by his family gathered at his deathbed. Ill. David Kirby, he almost looked like Christ.

And there, near the bottom right, a few words hung in the green box: “Benetton’s United Colors.”

The 1990s ad was one of the most provocative and divisive in recent fashion history, sparking heated debate over whether Benetton and Mr. Toscani were creating art, propaganda or using the epidemic to sell their clothes.

It should be noted that there was also Mr. Toscani Courtesy of the Kirby family Using a color version of a photo taken by photographer Therese Frare in 1990. The Kirbys said the campaign helped spread AIDS awareness.

“Benetton didn’t take advantage of us or exploit us,” the Kirby family said, adding that it was a way for their son’s portrait to “be seen around the world, and that’s what David wanted.”

Mr. Toscani’s ads were often socially progressive, with depictions of interracial and gay families. They also intended to shock. He used images of horses mating. He used blood stains uniform Soldier killed in Bosnia-Herzegovina. One ad featured actors dressed as priests and a nun kissing.

“Ad agencies make millions by repeating the same old thing,” he said he said In 1995, the New York Times added, “We’re trying to go the other way.”

Mr. Toscani sometimes crossed the line, even for Benetton. He joined the company in 1982 and left amid controversy in 2000 over an ad campaign in which he featured photographs. death row inmates across the United States.

He returned in 2017 as creative director. But his career at Benetton ended in 2020, not because of the calculated and daring risks he took in photography and advertising, but because he was happy to broadly challenge conventional ideas of respectability. Rather, it was in his radio interview that a Bridge collapsed in Italy More than 40 people died. “Who cares if the bridge falls?” he said. Although he apologized, Benetton fired him.

italian politicians and creative leaders paid tribute to him on social media on Monday. Designer Valentino Garavani, creator of Valentino, called him “A visionary who challenged the world with his lens.” Designer Giorgio Armani wrote that “the directness and visual impact of his language set the standard.”

Oliviero Toscani was born on February 28, 1942 in Milan. He followed the path of his father, Fedele Toscani, who was a photojournalist. Mr. Toscani trained at the Zurich School of Applied Arts and worked as a fashion designer before joining the Benetton Group in 1982 as art director.

His survivors include his wife Kirsty Moseng Toscani and three children, Rocco, Lola and Ali. Mr Toscani has been married twice before and has three other children. Full details of the survivors were not immediately available.

In the final months of his life, Mr. Toscani told Corriere della Sera that he had lost weight during treatment. amyloidosis and that his sense of taste is diminished. Wine gives it a different taste, he said. “I’m not interested in living like this,” he said.

But in September he he traveled To the Zurich Design Museum for the big retrospective “Oliviero Toscani: Photography and Subversion”. It closed a week before his death.

“I realized that advertising is the richest and most powerful tool available today” he said In 1991, The Times. “So I feel more responsible than saying, ‘Our sweater is beautiful.'”

Elisabetta Povoledo and Matthew Mpoke Bigg contributed to the report.