Migration to unified `data.getty.edu/local/thesaurus` URLs for custom terms.
Filter on `Getty DOR ID` (https://data.getty.edu/local/thesaurus/dor-id) instead.
Filter on `Gallery Systems' TMS ID` (https://data.getty.edu/local/thesaurus/tms-id) instead.
Filter on `Getty DOR UUID` (https://data.getty.edu/local/thesaurus/dor-uuid) instead.
Mario Giacomelli (1925–2000) is widely recognized as one of the foremost Italian photographers of the twentieth century. Born into poverty, he lived his entire life in Senigallia, a town on the Adriatic coast, in the Marche region. After losing his father at age nine and completing elementary school at eleven, he apprenticed as a typesetter and printer, while also teaching himself to paint and write poetry. He served briefly as a soldier in World War II. In 1950, money given to him by a resident of the hospice where his mother worked enabled him to open his own printing house, ensuring financial stability for the remainder of his life. His engagement with photography began soon thereafter, occurring primarily on Sundays, the only day that the print shop was closed. Giacomelli purchased his first camera in 1953, and two years later acquired the secondhand Kobell camera with a Voigtländer lens that he would employ throughout his career. He described it in his 1987 interview with Frank Horvat as something that he “had cobbled up”; it was held together with tape and always losing parts. Made by Boniforti & Ballerio, the camera used 120 roll film to produce 6 × 9 cm negatives and accommodated interchangeable lenses and a synchronized flash. For Giacomelli, his camera was not merely a device for recording reality but a means of personal expression. His early association with members of local and national camera clubs and his experimentation with natural and artificial lighting, multiple exposures, and other in-camera and darkroom techniques led to the refinement of a unique visual language. His preference for grainy film and high-contrast paper resulted in bold, geometric compositions with deep blacks and glowing whites. Giacomelli’s photographic practice also shows the influence of two approaches that were prevalent in postwar photography: a humanistic mode that is often associated with photojournalism; and the impulse toward artistic creation as a means of exploring the human psyche, which derived from the influential theory of Subjective photography championed by the photographer Otto Steinert (German, 1915–1978). In Italy, these approaches found their respective counterparts in the camera clubs La Gondola (The gondola), established in Venice in 1948, and La Bussola (The compass), established in Milan in 1947. Giacomelli, who was self-taught as a photographer, exchanged ideas with and learned from members of both clubs. He was also a cofounder of Misa, a local chapter of La Bussola named after Senigallia’s principal river. Focusing his camera on the people, landscapes, and seascapes of the Marche region, Giacomelli often spent several years on a body of work, expanding and reinterpreting it, or repurposing an image made for one series for inclusion in another. By applying titles derived from poetry, he transformed ordinary subjects into meditations on the themes of time, memory, and existence. His deep connectedness with the Marche also led to extended series about the land, whether lamentations on the slow degradation of local farmland brought about by modern cultivation practices, or interventions that restored the countryside by imbuing it with a graphic intensity and beauty. Later works merge the genres of portraiture and landscape in quiet, sometimes haunting narratives. Giacomelli died in November 2000, after a long illness. He had continued working on several photographic series until his final days, including the poignantly titled *I Would Like to Tell This Memory (Questo ricordo lo vorrei raccontare*, 1997–2000) that attests to his deeply reflective temperament. From his unpromising beginnings as an impoverished, poorly educated boy, Giacomelli redirected the course of his life, maintaining a successful printing business that provided him financial security, and dedicating himself to the arts as a means of self-expression.
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, California
The J. Paul Getty Trust, Los Angeles, California
Acknowledgements for Artist/Maker Biography
Text provided by the J. Paul Getty Museum. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Migration from HTML to Markdown for Artist Biographies.
Additionally filter Artist Biographies via the `format` property to select between the 'text/html' or 'text/markdown' variants during the deprecation period.
Mario Giacomelli (1925–2000) is widely recognized as one of the foremost Italian photographers of the twentieth century. Born into poverty, he lived his entire life in Senigallia, a town on the Adriatic coast, in the Marche region. After losing his father at age nine and completing elementary school at eleven, he apprenticed as a typesetter and printer, while also teaching himself to paint and write poetry. He served briefly as a soldier in World War II. In 1950, money given to him by a resident of the hospice where his mother worked enabled him to open his own printing house, ensuring financial stability for the remainder of his life. His engagement with photography began soon thereafter, occurring primarily on Sundays, the only day that the print shop was closed. Giacomelli purchased his first camera in 1953, and two years later acquired the secondhand Kobell camera with a Voigtländer lens that he would employ throughout his career. He described it in his 1987 interview with Frank Horvat as something that he “had cobbled up”; it was held together with tape and always losing parts. Made by Boniforti & Ballerio, the camera used 120 roll film to produce 6 × 9 cm negatives and accommodated interchangeable lenses and a synchronized flash. For Giacomelli, his camera was not merely a device for recording reality but a means of personal expression. His early association with members of local and national camera clubs and his experimentation with natural and artificial lighting, multiple exposures, and other in-camera and darkroom techniques led to the refinement of a unique visual language. His preference for grainy film and high-contrast paper resulted in bold, geometric compositions with deep blacks and glowing whites. Giacomelli’s photographic practice also shows the influence of two approaches that were prevalent in postwar photography: a humanistic mode that is often associated with photojournalism; and the impulse toward artistic creation as a means of exploring the human psyche, which derived from the influential theory of Subjective photography championed by the photographer Otto Steinert (German, 1915–1978). In Italy, these approaches found their respective counterparts in the camera clubs La Gondola (The gondola), established in Venice in 1948, and La Bussola (The compass), established in Milan in 1947. Giacomelli, who was self-taught as a photographer, exchanged ideas with and learned from members of both clubs. He was also a cofounder of Misa, a local chapter of La Bussola named after Senigallia’s principal river. Focusing his camera on the people, landscapes, and seascapes of the Marche region, Giacomelli often spent several years on a body of work, expanding and reinterpreting it, or repurposing an image made for one series for inclusion in another. By applying titles derived from poetry, he transformed ordinary subjects into meditations on the themes of time, memory, and existence. His deep connectedness with the Marche also led to extended series about the land, whether lamentations on the slow degradation of local farmland brought about by modern cultivation practices, or interventions that restored the countryside by imbuing it with a graphic intensity and beauty. Later works merge the genres of portraiture and landscape in quiet, sometimes haunting narratives. Giacomelli died in November 2000, after a long illness. He had continued working on several photographic series until his final days, including the poignantly titled I Would Like to Tell This Memory (Questo ricordo lo vorrei raccontare, 1997–2000) that attests to his deeply reflective temperament. From his unpromising beginnings as an impoverished, poorly educated boy, Giacomelli redirected the course of his life, maintaining a successful printing business that provided him financial security, and dedicating himself to the arts as a means of self-expression.
Filter on `Birth Place Description` (https://data.getty.edu/local/thesaurus/birth-place-description) instead.
Filter on `Life Dates Description` (https://data.getty.edu/local/thesaurus/life-dates-description) instead.
Filter on `Birth Date Description` (https://data.getty.edu/local/thesaurus/birth-date-description) instead.