Steve McCurry's "Children" at the Istituto degli Innocenti

Steve McCurry returns in town with another exceptional exhibition, entitled Children, set up in the very place in Florence that has been dealing with childhood for over 600 years: the Istituto degli Innocenti in Piazza Santissima Annunziata, designed by Filippo Brunelleschi in 1419, a masterful example of harmonic and rational architecture.

The first exhibition entirely dedicated to the theme of childhood by the famous American photographer, displays 100 shots of children from all over the world and taken in almost fifty years of activity.
The subjects are portrayed in scenes of everyday life, captured as only McCurry is capable of doing. The masterful use of color and the focus on intense gazes are the main characteristics of the artist's style, who seems to be able to create a strong connection with the portrayed subject every time.

The visitor follows McCurry on his travels to India, Burma, Japan, Africa, Brazil, Mexico, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Italy, meeting children that are very different from each other, but all united by the same innocence and joie de vivre typical of childhood.
We see refugee children, working children, children who climb a cannon completely unaware of the danger, children who play in the mud, children who play soccer in the monsoon rains, children who find a way to have fun in the most diverse and adverse conditions.

Among McCurry's intentions there is also that of raising public awareness on the issue of youth exploitation. The children captured by his lens often find themselves forced to work when they should only be playing and going to school. Despite this, they always find ways to remain fascinated and curious about the world around them, managing to carve out moments to discover it through play.
With this exhibition McCurry captures childhood in all its facets through a gallery of moving and surprising images, masterfully paying homage to this wonderful period of life, which unites all humanity.