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[[File:Mario-Giacomelli con una Kobell.jpg|thumb|Mario Giacomelli with his Kobell in 1970. Photo: M. Martino.]]
[[File:Mario-Giacomelli con una Kobell.jpg|thumb|Mario Giacomelli with his Kobell in 1970. Photo: M. Martino.]]


'''Mario Giacomelli''' ([[Senigallia]], 1 August 1925 – Senigallia, 25 November 2000) was an [[Italian people|Italian]] photographer.
'''Mario Giacomelli''' ([[Senigallia]], 1 August 1925 – Senigallia, 25 November 2000) was a self-taught [[Italian people|Italian]] photographer and photojournalist in the genre of [[Humanist photography|Humanis]]<nowiki/>m.


==Biography==
==Biography==
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]],<ref name=":1" /> and influenced by the renowned Italian photographer [[Giuseppe Cavalli]], eventually developing a style characterized by bold compositions and stark contrasts.
Giacomelli was born in the sea-port town of Senigallia in the Marche region of Italy into a family of modest means. Only none when his father died, at 13, the boy left high school to work as a typesetter and spent his weekends painting and writing poetry.<ref name="warren-2016" /> After the horrors of World War II, from 1953 he turned to the more immediate medium of photography and joined the Misa Group, formed that year after pre-war years dominated by a [[Pictorialism|Pictorialist]] aesthetic promoted by the Fascist government. He wandered the streets and fields of post-war Italy, inspired by the gritty Neo-Realist films of [[Vittorio De Sica]] and [[Roberto Rossellini]],<ref name=":1" /> and influenced by the renowned Italian photographer [[Giuseppe Cavalli]], founder of Misa, and developing a style characterized by radical compositions, bold cropping and stark contrasts.


In 1955 he was discovered in Italy by [[Paolo Monti]], and beginning in 1963, became known in the outside Italy<ref name=":0">{{Citation | author1=Pelizzari, Maria Antonella | author2=Ebrary | title=Photography and Italy | publication-date=2010 | publisher=Reaktion Books | isbn=978-1-283-13368-5 | page=7, 127 }}</ref> through [[John Szarkowski]] of the [[Museum of Modern Art]], New York,<ref name="warren-2016">{{cite book | url= https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=cFVsBgAAQBAJ | title=Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Photography | author=Lynne Warren |year=2005 | publisher=[[Routledge]] | isbn = 9781135205430 | pages=602}}</ref> who exhibited one of Giacomelli's iconic image ''[[Scanno Boy]]'' (1957).
In 1955 he was discovered in Italy by [[Paolo Monti]], and beginning in 1963, became known in the outside Italy<ref name=":0">{{Citation | author1=Pelizzari, Maria Antonella | author2=Ebrary | title=Photography and Italy | publication-date=2010 | publisher=Reaktion Books | isbn=978-1-283-13368-5 | page=7, 127 }}</ref> through [[John Szarkowski]] of the [[Museum of Modern Art]], New York,<ref name="warren-2016">{{cite book | url= https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=cFVsBgAAQBAJ | title=Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Photography | author=Lynne Warren |year=2005 | publisher=[[Routledge]] | isbn = 9781135205430 | pages=602}}</ref> who exhibited one of Giacomelli's iconic image ''[[Scanno Boy]]'' (1957).


== Technique ==
== Technique ==
Giacomelli's technique is distinctive. In 1954 he bought a second-hand Kobell,<ref>see 'Kobell' entry at Camera-wiki[http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Kobell]</ref> a coupled rangefinder camera for 6x9 plates and film, one of only about 400 made by Boniforti and Ballerio in Milan from about 1952, and modified it himself.<ref name="warren-2016" /> He was unafraid of exploiting the double-exposure capability of its [[Compur shutter]], as well as soft focus, camera movement and slow shutter speeds. His images are high-contrast, the result of overdevelopment of his film and compensatory heavy printing<ref name=":1">{{Citation | author1=Hirsch, Robert | title=Seizing the light : a social & aesthetic history of photography | publication-date=2017 | publisher=Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group | edition=Third edition | page=386 | isbn=978-1-138-94425-1 }}</ref> so that nearly-black forms 'float' against a white ground.<ref>{{Citation | author1=Michael Peres | title=The Concise Focal Encyclopedia of Photography From the First Photo on Paper to the Digital RevolutionPaperback | publication-date=2007 | publisher=Focal Press | edition=1 edition | page=158 | isbn=978-0-240-80998-4 }}</ref> In accounting for these choices he referred to his printing-industry and graphic arts training; "For me the photographic film is like a printing plate, a lithograph, where images and emotions become stratified."<ref name=":0" />
Giacomelli's technique is distinctive. After beginning with the popular and robust Comet 127 film viewfinder camera made in Italy by CMF Bencini from 1948 into the 1950s, in 1954 he bought a second-hand Kobell,<ref>see 'Kobell' entry at Camera-wiki[http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Kobell]</ref> a larger coupled rangefinder camera for 6x9 plates and film, one of only about 400 made by Boniforti and Ballerio in Milan from about 1952, and modified it himself.<ref name="warren-2016" /> He was unafraid of exploiting the double-exposure capability of its [[Leaf shutter|Compur shutter]], as well as soft focus, camera movement and slow shutter speeds. His images are high-contrast, quite unlike the continuous tones of his mentor Cavalli, and are the result of using electronic flash, from overdevelopment of his film and compensatory heavy printing<ref name=":1">{{Citation | author1=Hirsch, Robert | title=Seizing the light : a social & aesthetic history of photography | publication-date=2017 | publisher=Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group | edition=Third edition | page=386 | isbn=978-1-138-94425-1 }}</ref> so that nearly-black forms 'float' against a white ground.<ref>{{Citation | author1=Michael Peres | title=The Concise Focal Encyclopedia of Photography From the First Photo on Paper to the Digital RevolutionPaperback | publication-date=2007 | publisher=Focal Press | edition=1 edition | page=158 | isbn=978-0-240-80998-4 }}</ref> In accounting for these choices he referred to his printing-industry and graphic arts training; "For me the photographic film is like a printing plate, a lithograph, where images and emotions become stratified."<ref name=":0" /> After 1986, especially in his 1992-3 series ''Il pittore Bastari'' ('The painter Bastari') he artificially included consciously symbolic cardboard masks and toy dogs.


== Scanno Boy ==
== Series ==
Giacomelli was inspired by the literature of [[Cesare Pavese]], [[Giacomo Leopardi]] and [[Eugenio Montale]] from which he often borrowed titles for his picture series, such as the confronting, unsentimental pictures he made in an old-people's home; ''Verrà la more e avrà i tuoi occhi'' ('Death will come and will have your eyes'), taken from a Pavese poem. He wrote his own poetry and his pictures are a reflection of their visual language.
⚫
''Scanno Boy'' (1957) is Giacomelli's best-known example of the emotional effect of his technical innovation. It generates a portentous, [[Metaphysical art|'pittura metafisica]]' atmosphere<ref>"His poetic photos are discussed in connection with Italian neorealism and the movement 'pittura metafisica'." Art Directory - Photography entry on Giacomelli[http://www.art-directory.info/photography/mario-giacomelli-1925/]</ref> from which dark and out-of focus figures emerge, with only one single and central subject that is sharp: a boy in the middle distance who looks into the camera, framed by fleeting, black-haloed foreground figures and strolling with his hands in his pockets, followed by two other old women, dressed identically,

⚫
Like other members of Misa, Giacomelli photographed the simple lives of the poor of southern Italy, in 1957 and 1959 visiting Scanno, a small town in the Abruzzii region which [[Henri Cartier-Bresson]] had visited only five years before to make quite different pictures. There he produced the image known as ''Scanno Boy'' (1957), one of Giacomelli's best-known examples of the emotional effect of his technical innovation. It generates a portentous, [[Metaphysical art|'pittura metafisica]]' atmosphere<ref>"His poetic photos are discussed in connection with Italian neorealism and the movement 'pittura metafisica'." Art Directory - Photography entry on Giacomelli[http://www.art-directory.info/photography/mario-giacomelli-1925/]</ref> from which dark and out-of focus figures emerge, with only one single and central subject that is sharp: a boy in the middle distance who looks into the camera, framed by fleeting, black-haloed foreground figures, and strolling with his hands in his pockets, followed by two other identically dressed old women.


In 1964 this photograph was shown by [[John Szarkowski]] in the notable exhibition at the [[Museum of Modern Art]] in New York, ''The Photographer’s Eye'' (and reproduced in the catalogue in 1966). The photograph is also published in ''Looking at Photographs. 100 Pictures from the Collection of the Museum of Modern Art New York'' (also by Szarkowski, 1973).
In 1964 this photograph was shown by [[John Szarkowski]] in the notable exhibition at the [[Museum of Modern Art]] in New York, ''The Photographer’s Eye'' (and reproduced in the catalogue in 1966). The photograph is also published in ''Looking at Photographs. 100 Pictures from the Collection of the Museum of Modern Art New York'' (also by Szarkowski, 1973).

Revision as of 07:16, 16 July 2018

Mario Giacomelli with his Kobell in 1970. Photo: M. Martino.

Mario Giacomelli (Senigallia, 1 August 1925 – Senigallia, 25 November 2000) was a self-taught Italian photographer and photojournalist in the genre of Humanism.

Biography

Giacomelli was born in the sea-port town of Senigallia in the Marche region of Italy into a family of modest means. Only none when his father died, at 13, the boy left high school to work as a typesetter and spent his weekends painting and writing poetry.[1] After the horrors of World War II, from 1953 he turned to the more immediate medium of photography and joined the Misa Group, formed that year after pre-war years dominated by a Pictorialist aesthetic promoted by the Fascist government. He wandered the streets and fields of post-war Italy, inspired by the gritty Neo-Realist films of Vittorio De Sica and Roberto Rossellini,[2] and influenced by the renowned Italian photographer Giuseppe Cavalli, founder of Misa, and developing a style characterized by radical compositions, bold cropping and stark contrasts.

In 1955 he was discovered in Italy by Paolo Monti, and beginning in 1963, became known in the outside Italy[3] through John Szarkowski of the Museum of Modern Art, New York,[1] who exhibited one of Giacomelli's iconic image Scanno Boy (1957).

Technique

Giacomelli's technique is distinctive. After beginning with the popular and robust Comet 127 film viewfinder camera made in Italy by CMF Bencini from 1948 into the 1950s, in 1954 he bought a second-hand Kobell,[4] a larger coupled rangefinder camera for 6x9 plates and film, one of only about 400 made by Boniforti and Ballerio in Milan from about 1952, and modified it himself.[1] He was unafraid of exploiting the double-exposure capability of its Compur shutter, as well as soft focus, camera movement and slow shutter speeds. His images are high-contrast, quite unlike the continuous tones of his mentor Cavalli, and are the result of using electronic flash, from overdevelopment of his film and compensatory heavy printing[2] so that nearly-black forms 'float' against a white ground.[5] In accounting for these choices he referred to his printing-industry and graphic arts training; "For me the photographic film is like a printing plate, a lithograph, where images and emotions become stratified."[3] After 1986, especially in his 1992-3 series Il pittore Bastari ('The painter Bastari') he artificially included consciously symbolic cardboard masks and toy dogs.

Series

Giacomelli was inspired by the literature of Cesare Pavese, Giacomo Leopardi and Eugenio Montale from which he often borrowed titles for his picture series, such as the confronting, unsentimental pictures he made in an old-people's home; Verrà la more e avrà i tuoi occhi ('Death will come and will have your eyes'), taken from a Pavese poem. He wrote his own poetry and his pictures are a reflection of their visual language.

Like other members of Misa, Giacomelli photographed the simple lives of the poor of southern Italy, in 1957 and 1959 visiting Scanno, a small town in the Abruzzii region which Henri Cartier-Bresson had visited only five years before to make quite different pictures. There he produced the image known as Scanno Boy (1957), one of Giacomelli's best-known examples of the emotional effect of his technical innovation. It generates a portentous, 'pittura metafisica' atmosphere[6] from which dark and out-of focus figures emerge, with only one single and central subject that is sharp: a boy in the middle distance who looks into the camera, framed by fleeting, black-haloed foreground figures, and strolling with his hands in his pockets, followed by two other identically dressed old women.

In 1964 this photograph was shown by John Szarkowski in the notable exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, The Photographer’s Eye (and reproduced in the catalogue in 1966). The photograph is also published in Looking at Photographs. 100 Pictures from the Collection of the Museum of Modern Art New York (also by Szarkowski, 1973).

In 2013 the boy was revealed by Simona Guerra, researcher and niece of Mario Giacomelli,[7] to be Claudio De Cola, and on October 19th, 1957, he was exiting the Church of Sant'Antonio da Padova like the people around him, after the Mass. Through several researches in the archives and in the town of Scanno, Guerra "met the parents of the boy, who is now in his sixties and does not live in Scanno anymore. His recognition, confirmed by himself, was also done by his parents. His mother, Teopista, produced several other pictures "of her son, providing "evidence that De Cola was the boy portrayed by Giacomelli."

Recognition

Apart from Scanno, Giacomelli's most successful[citation needed] series are The Landscapes (1954-2000) and I Pretini (Little Priests) (1961-1963), a transcription of the everyday life of a group of young priests, resulted from his documentation of post-war Italian seminaries.

Bibliography

  • Ida Gianelli and Antonella Russo, Mario Giacomelli, Castello di Rivoli, Turin, 1992.
  • Enzo Carli, Mario Giacomelli: The Inner form. Photographs 1952-1995, Charta Books, Milan, 1996.
  • Ennery Taramelli, Mario Giacomelli, Nathan, Paris, 1998.
  • Germano Celant, Mario Giacomelli, Photology, Milan, 2001.
  • Sandro Genovali, Mario Giacomelli: Evoking Shadow, Charta Books, Milan, 2002.
  • Giacinto Di Pietrantonio, Riccardo Lisi, Antonio Ria, Michele Robecchi, Marco Tagliafierro, Born in a Ditch: Enzo Cucchi and Mario Giacomelli, ELR, Losone, 2003.
  • Alistair Crawford, Mario Giacomelli, Phaidon Press, London, 2006.
  • Roberto Maggiori, Enzo Cucchi & Bruno Giacomelli: Cose Mai Viste, Photology, Milan, 2006.
  • Simona Guerra, Mario Giacomelli. My Whole Life, Bruno Mondadori, Milan 2008.
  • Alistair Crawford, The Black Is Waiting for the White: Mario Giacomelli Photographs, Contrasto, Milan, 2009.
  • Katiuscia Biondi, Mario Giacomelli. Sotto la pelle del reale, 24Ore Cultura, Milan, 2011.
  • Katiuscia Biondi, Mario Giacomelli. Je ne fais pas le photographe, je ne sais pas le faire, Contrejour, Biarritz, France, 2016.

Collections

Giacomelli's work is held in the following permanent public collections:

References

  1. ^ a b c Lynne Warren (2005). Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Photography. Routledge. p. 602. ISBN 9781135205430.
  2. ^ a b Hirsch, Robert (2017), Seizing the light : a social & aesthetic history of photography (Third edition ed.), Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, p. 386, ISBN 978-1-138-94425-1 {{citation}}: |edition= has extra text (help)
  3. ^ a b Pelizzari, Maria Antonella; Ebrary (2010), Photography and Italy, Reaktion Books, p. 7, 127, ISBN 978-1-283-13368-5
  4. ^ see 'Kobell' entry at Camera-wiki[1]
  5. ^ Michael Peres (2007), The Concise Focal Encyclopedia of Photography From the First Photo on Paper to the Digital RevolutionPaperback (1 edition ed.), Focal Press, p. 158, ISBN 978-0-240-80998-4 {{citation}}: |edition= has extra text (help)
  6. ^ "His poetic photos are discussed in connection with Italian neorealism and the movement 'pittura metafisica'." Art Directory - Photography entry on Giacomelli[2]
  7. ^ The Scanno Boy Finally has a Name" Simona Guerra, 23 November 2013. Accessed 15 July 2017
  8. ^ "Mario Giacomelli". Castello di Rivoli. Accessed 23 March 2018.
  9. ^ "Mario Giacomelli – Italian, 1925-2000". Brooklyn Museum. Accessed 23 March 2018.
  10. ^ "Mario Giacomelli: Italian, 1925–2000". Museum of Modern Art. Accessed 23 March 2018.
  11. ^ "Mario Giacomelli: Italian, 1925–2000". Art Institute of Chicago. Accessed 23 March 2018.
  12. ^ "Mario Giacomelli: Italian: 1925, Senigallia, Italy: 2000, Senigallia, Italy". San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Accessed 23 March 2018.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mario_Giacomelli&oldid=850497332"