Photo Exposition about Hipster Culture

July, 5th – 10h30 – 11h00 – OPENING EXHIBITIONS

‘Photo Exposition about Hipster Culture‘
Artist: Lorenzo Caglioni

Description: Re-born in the early 2000nds in Brooklyn, NYC to ironically define a group of alternative young people, the concept of ‘Hipster’ has now become a big container to describe very different kinds of people, practices, tastes and places widespread in big cities all over the world. It is used to denote both alternative and mainstream aspects of the urban culture, to talk about emerging creative boroughs and gentrification processes. In identification dynamics, the word is used to indicate either uniqueness or conformity. Referring to youth culture, to define ‘edgy’/trendy/cool modern people in step with the times and young people affected by the fascination for the past. So what do these different meanings have in common? It seems to be difficult to make sense of the word “hipster”, especially from a sociological perspective, but at the same time we cannot deny its importance, since it is widespread used, especially amongst the Millennials’ generation, to express intersubjective comprehensible meanings. Hence my personal journey begins. These photos tell a story on the contemporary hipster, returning an image of common cultural tendencies within some places, such as flea markets and neighbourhoods known as ‘hipster’ or ‘cool areas’ in Milan and in London, where I’m leading a sociological research about this topic. This is a story of details and juxtapositions. Details, such as elements of fashion and style, specific objects, pieces of design, meaningful behaviours and gestures, bodies: close-ups and reiterations within the slideshow. Juxtapositions, i.e. matches or contrasts: between handmade craft and vintage, generational combinations, gender, sexual orientation and ethnic differences.

Lorenzo Caglioni is a Sociology Ph.D. student at Università Cattolica of Milan, still running an ethnographic research on “Hipster areas” in Milan and London, supported by visual materials.