Phil Stern Project

The activity of the Fondazione Oelle Mediterraneo Antico begins with a tribute to the great photographer Phil Stern: the Phil Stern Pavilion.

The 700 square meter pavilion enriches the collection of the 1943 Landing in Sicily Museum in Catania with 70 images of the great American photographer, who became famous for having documented the American landing in Sicily in July 1943.

The Phil Stern Pavilionwas inaugurated on September 25th 2017, at 6.00 pm, in presence of the sons of the photographer, Peter and Tom, who came from Los Angeles to attest the work done in recent years by a group of professionals to enhance the father's work, through exhibitions, books and conferences.

The Phil Stern Pavilion, curated by the historian Ezio Costanzo, and strongly desired by Ornella Laneri, president of the Foundation, was realized thanks to an agreement with the Città Metropolitana of Catania.

The pavilion also displays historical illustrative panels, posters, a collection depicting the young Phil Stern and photographs taken on Hollywood sets and in the world of jazz. Exclusively for the museum are also exposed some giant photographs taken by Carmelo Nicosia, Stern's personal photographer during the days of his return to Sicily in 2013 and published in the book Phil Stern. Welcome back to Sicily, images that depict the human aspects of Phil Stern who brings his family back to Sicily after 70 years, reliving the places that saw him as a young reporter.

The Fondazione, among the various activities, includes a special attention to the landing sites as territories interested in possible socio-economic developments, so as to imagine a specific cultural tourism district of such places in line with the English and French realities.

Phil Stern (1919-2014) was one of the greatest contemporary photographers who went down in history for his photographs taken during the Second World War in North Africa and Sicily and for having immortalized the great names of the cinema during the Hollywood golden age (Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, Frank Sinatra, John Wayne and many others).

In 2013 he returned to Sicily after 70 years to inaugurate his photography exhibition on the Anglo-American occupation of the island during the 1943 summer, entitled "Phil Stern Sicily 1943", conceived and curated by Ezio Costanzo.

Phil Stern died in December 2014 at the age of 95. The documentary film "Phil Stern, Sicily 1943, the war and the soul" by Ezio Costanzo, told about his life.

In the summer of 2013 the great American photographer Phil Stern, at the age of 93, returns to Sicily after 70 years to inaugurate the personal exhibition of unpublished photographs about the war on the island and to close a circle that in Sicily had had his beginning.

Phil Stern had landed on the coast of Gela on 10th July 1943, at 24, following the American troops (Darby's Rangers) to document the advance and liberation of the island by the Allies; Phil, enlisted for a strong sense of freedom and "to defeat Hitler", was sent back, wounded, to an hospital ship in America, where he later started a career as a photographer. In a few years he became one of the most coveted photographers in Hollywood, a friend of James Dean, Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe and a personal photographer of President J.F.Kennedy.

The master's return to Sicily also meant a lot for the organizers and supporters of the "Phil Stern. Welcome back to Sicily" project, Ezio Costanzo, Ornella Laneri and Carmelo Nicosia, to whom Phil - guest in this suite from 1st to 13th July 2013 - told the most intense moments of his life and his long career.

The result was a bond of deep friendship and intense collaboration enshrined with the creation of a documentary film edited by Ezio Costanzo and a prestigious volume that collects the images of those days captured by Carmelo Nicosia. Photographs that return the emotions experienced near a man whose look was an inexhaustible source of investigation and feelings, experienced in a time now with no return.

Dedicating this Suite to Phil Stern wants to be a tribute not only to the great character but also, and above all, to the man and the friend.