Born into poverty and self-taught as a photographer, Mario Giacomelli (1925–2000) lived his entire life in Senigallia, along Italy’s Adriatic coast. Soon after purchasing his first camera in 1953, he began creating humanistic portrayals of people in their natural environments and dramatic abstractions of the landscapes. Rendered in high contrast black and white, his photographs are often gritty and raw, but always intensely personal.
image:
Mario Giacomelli (Italian, 1925 – 2000) Pretini, no. 70, negative 1961 – 1963; print 1981 (detail)
Mario Giacomelli Archive © Rita and Simone Giacomelli