Mario Giacomelli

Born in 1925, Mario Giacomelli died in November 2000. He trained initially as a typographer, and his early interest in graphics became a central part of his later photographic work. Winner of numerous medals and prizes, he achieved international status with exhibitions in Europe, America and Japan. He was intimately involved in the preparation of this book, which was the last major project he undertook, and represents the best of his long career as a photographer and artist. This comprehensive survey demonstrates Giacomelli's highly personal, striking and artistically atmospheric visual style. Each chapter is a carefully chosen sequence of photographs on a particular theme (some with accompanying poems which inspired the sequence). A life-long preoccupation with the life and landscape of his native Italy gives Giacomelli his subject-matter — landscapes, rural townscapes, streetscenes, still life and portraits of everyday Italian life. With 684 beautiful and poetic duotone photographs, this extraordinary and inspiring collection displays a profound understanding of the photographer's country and its people, and a mastery of form and effect that make his photographs imaginative works of art in their own right.