Mario Giacomelli

Mario Giacomelli, born on August 1, 1925 in Senigallia, Marche, and died on November 25, 2000 in the same city, was one of the greatest Italian photographers of the 20th century, as well as a typographer, poet, and painter. Raised in a poor family, he lost his father at nine years old, while his mother Libera Guidini worked as a laundrywoman in the Senigallia hospice, a place that deeply influenced his work. In the 1950s, specifically on Christmas Day 1953, he bought his first camera, a Bencini Comet, and took his first images on the Senigallia beach, including the iconic L'approdo, depicting a shoe carried by the waves. Under the guidance of Ferruccio Ferroni and the supervision of Giuseppe Cavalli, he honed his technical skills and in 1954 founded the Misa Photographic Group, participating in competitions that led to his victory in the prestigious National Competition of Castelfranco Veneto in 1955, where Paolo Monti called him the new man of photography.

Mario Giacomelli's career is distinguished by an intimate and personal approach to black-and-white photography, transforming reality into visual poetry through intense graphic signs and theatrical compositions. He created renowned series such as Vita d'ospizio, dedicated to the elderly in the hospice frequented by his mother, portraits of relatives, friends, and colleagues in iconic poses, Marche landscapes like Le mie Marche, and aerial views of the Senigallia sea. In the 1970s and 1980s, he explored existential themes such as time, memory, suffering, and love, with increasingly introspective and autobiographical production, marked by the trauma of his mother's death in 1986. His innovative works, far from traditional documentary style, are exhibited in major world museums and represent a reference point for modern Italian photography.

Mario Giacomelli married Anna Berluti in 1954, who became a model along with his mother and other family members in his early photographs. His artistic research, influenced by friends like Afro and Alberto Burri, evolved toward abstraction and emptiness, capturing the essence of the Marche landscape as a mirror of interiority. Works like Fiamme sul campo, Prima amarezza, and Sono cristiani anche loro mark his first accolades. Today, Giacomelli's photographs are auctioned at houses like cambi, with rising quotations for their poetic and innovative value in the history of Italian photography.