insecure about something that turned out to be a great achievement?
OLIVIERO: It doesn't scare me to be insecure. You know when I drive my motorbike, I'm not secure.
When I go skiing, I'm not secure. When I take an airplane, I’m not secure. The only thing I’m secure of
is that someday I’ll die. The rest is optional, but —
ANDREA: Ok, but I’m trying to talk about your creativity.
OLIVIERO: When you take a chance you need the courage to not care about failing and starting again.
Every time you fail you learn that you could have done it better.
ANDREA: Give me an example of when that happened to you.
OLIVIERO: It happens every day. I wake up. Today is a new day. You take a picture and when you're
finished you know you could take it much better.
ANDREA: What's a typical day like for you?
OLIVIERO: I wake up pretty early in the morning. I like silence for a while.
ANDREA: Do you meditate or are you just silent?
OLIVIERO: Just silent. Then I read the newspaper.
ANDREA: Let’s talk about creativity. There are a lot of people who go around calling themselves creative.
OLIVIERO: I think they’re a bunch of idiots. You'll never hear a real creative person say, “I’m a creative.”
ANDREA: You’ve said that if advertising made everyone happy it would be an act of hypocrisy. What
do you believe the role of advertising is?
OLIVIERO: First of all, I don't believe in advertising. I’ve never really worked for an advertising agency.
ANDREA: You've been very lucky.
OLIVIERO: Everything is advertising. The Sistine Chapel is the advertising of the church.
ANDREA: But I’d like to know how you started in fashion photography.
OLIVIERO: I didn't start with fashion at all. I started with reportage: I was working for a magazine
and then the magazine editor asked me, “Why don't you take some fashion pictures?” So I took some
fashion pictures. But then Benetton came along and said, “Why don't you work for me?” So I started
to work with him. Normally I do work with people I like; the first thing you have to do is choose your
clients - who I call friends, rather than clients. Frank Lloyd Wright used to say the quality of the archi-
tecture depends on the intelligence of your client. So if you have a stupid client you can’t do a good job.
ANDREA: You've also said that it is an honor to be criticized.
OLIVIERO: Everybody was saying that “Toscani was destroying Benetton.” But “everybody” was
wrong: I revolutionized the whole advertising world. If you haven't got any critics then you haven't
done anything interesting
ANDREA: Tell me about working with Warhol.
Following spread: Cavalli, 1995; Following spread: Mano Bianca e Nera..
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