Farewell to Maurizio Rebuzzini, the scholar that Cartier Bresson had as a friend

An acrid smell of a repelling cigar preceded any form of possible contact: because Maurizio Rebuzzini was unapproachable, rough and distant like few others; and he was a lovable friend precisely for this reason. A person of truly uncommon intellectual honesty and depth, with a disarmingly nostalgic note for those few to whom he opened his heart. And I was privileged to be among them, despite the fact that he had long since disappeared from the radar of those of us his friends and colleagues who admired him wholeheartedly. Because the subtle, thoughtful and intelligent charm of his words was impossible to resist. Completing the picture of this complex man with his boundless culture and multiple interests was his expertise as a scholar and connoisseur of photography in all its aspects. And don't be surprised if the great Cartier Bresson counted him among his Italian friends, to whom he dedicated books and more. And speaking of books, his immense library was his worry. For years he had confessed to me that he did not know where and to whom to give it.

But back to him. A maniacal collector, in many of the trips we made together to the SWPA award, in the company of friends such as Cristina Papis, who loved him like few others (and he was proud of it), or of 'colleagues' who were also photographers, and whom he would point out to me as 'optimates', first and foremost his fraternal friend Lello Piazza, and then Amedeo Novelli and Barbara Silbe, we experienced the 'blackmail' on several occasions of keeping, saving them from the instinctive need to throw them away, gadgets of useless value and which for him, because of his very fine sensibility and his enquiring eyes, took on a boundless value. Because that is what he was: a real 'bear', capable of gestures of unusual courtesy, kindness and even contempt, as well as 'historical' outbursts - on the subject of photography. And on this point it was difficult, almost impossible to keep up with him: both for his sharpness and for his documented memory. He wrote for us on these pages, which he indelibly marked with his collaboration.

To learn of his death was a real cold shower for all of us who loved and admired him. I write about it with a mixture of unease and anger. Years ago we edited together a prize that saw Sole24Ore as a partner together with Sony. Our weekly meetings were made up of endless chats, worlds of refined criticism and analysis opened up over each photograph (never call them shots with him, the word was blasphemous to his ears!). And it was impossible for me not to agree with 'the Rebuzzini': for me he was a master, as for many students who feared him for his rigour and adored him for his competence. After years and years of suffering, bitter and prolonged loneliness, perhaps this death, which the news reports are so sad, will be explained to him mildly.