Opening of the exhibition of photographs

Fred Iltis (1923 Brno - 2008 San Jose) was born Willfried Gregor, the first-born son of botanist and mendeologist Hugo Iltis and his wife Anni. He entered the adult world prematurely. At the age of fifteen, he experienced the forced departure of his family to the United States in the face of the threat of Nazi persecution. He spent two and a half years serving in the army in the South Pacific. After the war, he earned a Ph.D. in entomology from the University of California, where he settled and taught in the biology department in San Jose. His own life's journey shaped him into a man very sensitive to minority issues, acts of injustice, and the devastation of nature. He began documenting the activities of the civil rights movement through black and white photographs. He took dozens of pictures of student protests against the war in Vietnam or of farm workers of Mexican origin for better working conditions. Fred Iltis could be funny and kind. As time went on, he simultaneously grew more pessimistic, reflecting the experiences that had marked him, and a certain bitterness as the enthusiasm, dreams and illusions born in the 1960s faded from society. He developed, printed and carefully archived his photographs himself at home. With a modesty all his own, he rejected his friends' proposals to display them. It was not until 2008 that he gave his consent for the exhibition. Fred Iltis - South and North of the Border, which he unfortunately did not live to see performed in Milan. Symbolically, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of his birth, we present the photographic work of Fred Iltis in his hometown, where he wished to return once more. The exhibition closes on 21 December 2023.

Tuesday 19 September at 6 p.m.