Mario Giacomelli (Senigallia, 1 August 1925 – Senigallia, 25 November 2000) was an Italian typographer, photographer and painter. Under the guidance of Ferruccio Ferroni and with the supervision of Cavalli, Giacomelli delves into photographic technique. Read the full biography
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Mario Giacomelli (Senigallia, 1 August 1925 – Senigallia, 25 November 2000) was an Italian typographer, photographer and painter. Under the guidance of Ferruccio Ferroni and with the supervision of Cavalli, Giacomelli delves into photographic technique. In 1954 the photographic group "Misa" was formed, in the same year, on April 24, he married Anna Berluti, who would also be a model in his first works, together with Libera Guidini, the artist's mother, and other family members and friends. In 1955 he won the National Competition of Castelfranco Veneto. There are some series from this period with a reportage style, but with these words in mind: "No image can be "reality", because reality only happens before your eyes once." such as Lourdes (1957), Scanno (1957/59), Puglia (1958, where he returned in 1982), Zingari (1958), Loreto (1959, where he returned in 1995), A man, a woman, a love (1960/61 ), Mattatoio (1960), Pretini (1961/63), The good land (1964/66). The first publications in specialized photography magazines begin. Continuing with his research, the photographer begins to ask farmers, paying them, to create precise signs on the land with their tractors, acting directly on the landscape to be photographed and then accentuating these signs in the print. Through Crocenzi, in '61 Elio Vittorini asked Giacomelli for the image Gente del sud (from the Puglia series) for the cover of the English edition of Conversazione in Sicilia. In '63 Piero Racanicchi, who together with Turroni was among the first critical supporters of Giacomelli's work, reported the photographer to John Szarkowski, director of the Photography department of the MOMA in New York who chose to exhibit one of his photographs at the exhibition The Photographer's Eye. The image is taken from the Scanno series.
