Finalists 2022, Mario Carnicelli

“With Mario Carnicelli, the word documentary takes on another dimension, as he engages in a true societal analysis, whether in black and white or in colour, in his native Italy or the United States. He seeks to reveal the essence of man rather than facts or gestures.“

Mario Carnicelli and photography go back a long way, starting as a child in his family’s photography studio for which he worked from the age of 14. But now he works outside. This passion will never leave him.

At the junction of street photography and the humanist movement, his approach involves paying particular attention to individuals. It is a question of “demonstrating and documenting”, he sums up. What he likes are ordinary people capturing their attitudes and postures, believing them to be revealing of the times and the world.

In his search for authenticity and his desire to avoid “cold realism”, he sees gestures as a valuable source of information: “The way you interlace your fingers, the way you bend your leg, the choice of where to stop, the way you blink your eyes, it’s all a story. In addition to body language, Mario Carnicelli also lingers on faces to capture emotions, for example during the funeral of the communist Togliatti in 1964, which brought together a huge crowd in Rome. Or in Atri, his hometown: “I am convinced that the people of Atri provide an ideal observatory for an analysis of the world.“

With Mario Carnicelli, the word documentary takes on another dimension, as he engages in a true societal analysis, whether in black and white or in colour, in his native Italy or the United States.

He seeks to reveal the essence of man rather than facts or gestures.

Sophie Bernard

Show Biography

Born in Atri, Italy, in 1937.

Mario Carnicelli‘s family ran a photography shop where the darkroom fascinated him from an early age.

At the age of fourteen, Carnicelli began taking photographs, in collaboration with his brother and father. He soon became the main photographer in the family studio for outdoor shots, notably with a documentary approach. For many years he covered numerous public events, demonstrations, Labour Day festivities, political and trade union meetings, always aiming for – as he calls it – a “humanistic” perspective.

In 1966, Mario Carnicelli won first prize in an Italian national photography contest sponsored by Popular Photography magazine, Mamiya and Pentax. The prize was a scholarship to photograph America. This trip allows him to realize a remarkable set on the Americans of the time.

His style is guided by a very instinctive approach having had little introduction to the scope of contemporary international photography, except through magazines and especially through his passion for cinema.

Later, Mario Carnicelli worked as a freelancer and special correspondent for various magazines and newspapers.

In the seventies, he mainly focussed on the family studio and its developing services in Pistoia and Florence, becoming a significant business for tourists and locals. After the shop closed in 2010, he once again devoted himself more to photography, in particular to the huge amount of carefully stored boxes filled with prints and negatives.

In 2014 Mario Carnicelli published the artist’s book C’era Togliatti and had a major solo exhibition at Palazzo Fabroni. In 2018, American Voyage. Photographs by Mario Carnicelli was published by RAP London.

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SITE :
http://www.mariocarnicelli.com