​01.01.2025

Farewell Oliviero Toscani: Brilliant Mind, Avantgardist, and... Human!

by Eyes & Ears of Europe

With his provocative and groundbreaking advertising campaigns, Oliviero Toscani revolutionized the advertising world while simultaneously redefining the boundaries between art, communication, and social engagement. As a photographer and creative director for the Benetton brand, he used his images to draw attention to social and political issues—whether addressing racism, the consequences of wars, or the stigmatization of diseases.

Toscani was more than just a photographer. He was a provocateur, a visionary, and a man who consistently fought to make the invisible visible. For his unique work and groundbreaking contributions to visual communication, he was awarded the first Eyes & Ears Excellence Award in 1998. His encounter with the network at that time left a lasting impact and set a benchmark for the connection between aesthetics, message, and social responsibility.

On January 13, 2025, Oliviero Toscani passed away at the age of 82. The world loses a creative pioneer whose work and values will continue to resonate deeply. Prof. Manfred Becker, Honorary President of Eyes & Ears of Europe, summarizes in his obituary what made Toscani both as an artist and as a person:

“... farewell my friend .. OLIVIERO TOSCANI .. 

brilliant thought leader, anti-mainstreamer, unbending teacher, communicator and generalist,

Eye opener and provocateur, advangardist and... human!

 

It was a magical moment for me to have experienced you in person.

A whole evening - 1998 - at the 1st presentation of the EYES & EARS EXCELLENCE Award to you -

we listened to you breathlessly... the uncompromising speech of a warm-hearted humanitarian.

The (small) strenuous after-award show round in what was then Munich legendary

Cult-bar Schumann`s. I was able to learn a lot from passionate discussions

about political provocation as a means to achieve the desired goals.

To this day, I have never met anyone in the history of EYES & EARS of EUROPE

as lastingly impressed as the one with OLIVIERO TOSCANI

 

I will never forget your huge empathy for young people with disabilities, for example.

After promotional filming for Bennetton on a Bavarian farm with the Handycap kids

you were heavily criticized by the German high-class journalists. “He preys on people

because of their disability for advertising purposes!" The opposite was the case.

The young people objected vehemently: “Never before have we been taken so seriously,

We too are worthy of being able to act in front of a camera and be shown on cinema and TV.

So far we've mostly lived almost invisibly!"