Carlo Bavagnoli

Costantino Nivola at the party on the occasion of the exhibition in Orani. Photograph by Carlo Bavagnoli, March 1958

Carlo Bavagnoli was born in Piacenza in 1932. After completing his classical studies, in 1951 he enrolled at the law school in Milan. In Brera, he had the opportunity to meet some young photographers, Alfa Castaldi, Mario Dondero and Ugo Mulas. In 1955, having moved permanently to Milan, he began to collaborate with “Italian Illustration”, “Illustrated Time” and “Cinema Nuovo”.
Hired as a photographer by “Epoca”, in 1956 he was transferred to the Roman editorial office of the magazine. In the capital, a long work began to document the working-class neighborhood of Trastevere, thanks to which he obtained his first contacts with the American magazine “Life”, which published some photos of him.
In March 1958 he was in Sardinia for the first time, in Orani, where he photographed Costantino Nivola for the same magazine during the decoration of the facade of the church of Our Lady of Itria and the exhibition of sculptures set up in the streets of the town.
The following year he spent a month in New York, where “Life” again asked him, for training purposes, to write a report on the life of the metropolis; two years later he offered him a contract as a correspondent from Italy. In the following years he will work as a freelancer for various newspapers.
Between 1960 and 1961 he returned to Sardinia, to Loculi and Irgoli, sent by “L'Espresso” for a report on poverty in Italy, which will not be published because it was considered not dramatic enough. In fact, he had preferred to avoid the rhetoric and ideological forces that raged on the pages of newspapers and magazines in those years.
In the following years, trips between Italy and the United States intensified. For “Life” he documents the opening of the Second Vatican Council, the death of John XXIII and the election of Paul VI. In the meantime, he continues his collaboration with 'Epoca'.
1964 was a memorable year for his activity: he was hired in the American editorial office of “Life”, a unique fact for an Italian photographer; after a year spent in New York, he was transferred to the Paris office.
Since 1972, the year in which the publication of the American magazine ceased, he intensified his return to Italy, published numerous photographic books, made various documentaries for television and dealt with classical music.