Mario Giacomelli: Under the Skin of Reality - Treasures from the Sassoferrato Archive

Mario Giacomelli: Under the Skin of Reality – Treasures from the Sassoferrato Archive by Aline SmithsonOctober 4, 2015

Schilt Publishing has recently launched the book, Mario Giacomelli: Under the Skin of Reality – Treasures from the Sassoferrato Archive. In this book, the archive’s director (who is also Giacomelli’s granddaughter) Katiuscia Biondi “analyses the precise code that makes the photographer Giacomelli a continuum, in which every element, every photograph, every gesture of the artist himself participates in the creation of an ultimate meaning, the total original”. Giacomelli’s unique black and white capture straddles reality and surrealism, finding complexity in form and shapes, lines and markings.

Photographer Mario Giacomelli was born on August 1, 1925 in Senigallia (le Marche, Italy), where he died on November 25, 2000. He was a self-taught master of black and white photography who typically worked in the area where he lived. His subjects were both landscapes and social issues.

©Mario Giacomelli

The Mario Giacomelli Sassoferrato archive contains some 12,000 photographs (made using various printing techniques), their contact sheets and negatives.

The mission of the Sassoferrato archive is to provide a philological framework of the works of Giacomelli, in the context in which the artist worked. It therefore offers a unique all-round view of this great artist, whose life path and way of working have been relatively unknown up till now.

The Sassoferrato Archive promotes a new way of looking at Mario Giacomelli, by highlighting his working method; the totally coherent structure that encompasses his entire production and is Giacomelli’s unique style. For Giacomelli, art and life were intrinsically linked, and each
series was created in close connection with the previous ones.