Mario Giacomelli

Mario Giacomelli

Mario Giacomelli (19252000) was an Italian photographer born on 1 August 1925 in Senigallia, Italy. He died on 25 November 2000 in the town of his birth.

Known for: Photographs of Italian seminaries and a poetic transcription of everyday life in Southern Italy. Bold, stylized compositions with stark contrast.

Most Popular Image: "Scanno, 1957"; "Pretini" series (Little Priests)

About:
Giacomelli was a self-taught photographer.
At 13, he left high school, began working as a typesetter and spent his weekends painting. After the horrors of World War II, he turned to the more immediate medium of photography. He wandered the streets and fields of post-war Italy, inspired by the gritty Neo-Realist films of Vittorio De Sica and Roberto Rossellini.
His mother worked at the nursing home where Giacomelli took many of his photographs of the elderly.
He met and was influenced by the noted Italian photographer,Giuseppe Cavalli.

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