Mario Giacomelli (Senigallia, 1 August 1925 ? Senigallia, 25 November 2000) was an Italian photographer.
Giacomelli was a self-taught photographer. At 13, he left high school, began working as a typesetter and spent his weekends painting. After the horrors of World War II, he turned to the more immediate medium of photography. He wandered the streets and fields of post-war Italy, inspired by the gritty Neo-Realist films of Vittorio De Sica and Roberto Rossellini, and influenced by the renewed Italian photographer Giuseppe Cavalli, eventually developing a style characterized by bold compositions and stark contrasts.
One of Giacomelli's most iconic images, Scanno Boy (1957) consists of a picture portraying a group of women walking towards the observer with only one single and central object in focus: a boy walking with his hands in his pockets. In 2013 the name of the boy has been revealed by Simona Guerra: researcher and niece of Mario Giacomelli as Claudio De Cola. On October 19, 1957, the day Giacomelli took the photo, De Cola was emerging from the Church of Sant'Antonio in Padua like many of the people around him, after the Mass. De Cola, now in his sixties and no longer a resident of Scanno, recognised himself in the picture. Further evidence was provided by his mother Teopista, who produced several other pictures of the boy.
Apart from Scanno, Giacomelli's most successful series are The Landscapes (1954-2000) and I Pretini (Little Priests) (1961-1963), a transcription of the everyday life of a group of young priests, resulted from documenting Post-War Italian seminaries.
Giacomelli's work is present in many internationally acclaimed museums permanent collection, including Castello di Rivoli in Turin, the Brooklyn Museum in New York, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Metropolitan Museum in New York, and the Art Institute of Chicago.
Lorenzo was born in Senigallia, where he still lives.
In 1999 he achieved the Italian Canon Prize for the best photographic portfolio. Since January 2000 he joined Contrasto.
Since 2006 some of his original prints have been included for sale in the gallery of Forma Foundation for Photography, based in Milan.
In 2007 the World Press Photo awarded him within the ?sport features singles” category with an image out of his ?Sports in China” feature; then he received the G.R.I.N. Amilcare Ponchielli award for his work ?Fedeli alla Tribu” (Loyal to the tribe).
He exhibited ?Viaggio intorno a casa” at the the ”Palazzo del Duca”, in Senigallia. He exposed in three editions of Paris Photo, as well as in many exhibitions in Italy and abroad, including the Venice Biennale Marche Pavilion.
He made his debut as movie director in 2003 with the movie ?Prova a Volare”, starring then emerging actor Riccardo Scamarcio. In 2011 he directed the movie ?Mi ricordo Mario Giacomelli” with the participation of the most important personalities of Italian photography and art.
