Paolo Monti

He mainly worked with architecture reproductions, which were used by magazines and book editors for illustration. Starting from 1966, Monti catalogued the historic centres of Italian cities.

• Name — Paolo Monti • Born — 11 August 1908 • Birthplace — Novara, Kingdom of Italy • Died — 29 November 1982 • Place of death — Milan, Italy • Occupation — * Photographer • researcher • professor • Years Active — 1953–1982

• Illustration — Self-portrait, 1954 Monti was born in Novara. His father was a banker and amateur photographer from Val d'Ossola. His family moved several times as his father was transferred between small towns. He attended Bocconi University in Milan and graduated in Economics in 1930.

After graduation, he worked for a few years in the Piedmont region. His father died in 1936 and shortly afterwards Paolo married Maria Binotti. From 1939 to 1945, he lived in Mestre near Venice, then moved to Venice proper, where he worked at the Regional Agricultural Cooperative and continued his hobby of photography. In his early period, Monti experimented with abstractionism as well as with effects such as blurring and diffraction. He helped found the club La Gondola in 1947, which shortly became a feature of the international avant-garde photography movement. In 1953, Monti became a professional photographer, working mainly with magazines in the field of architecture and design. He helped illustrate over 200 volumes on cities and regions, architects, and artists. Starting in about 1965, he photographed illustrations for the history of Italian literature and also photographed Apennine valleys, including the region of Emilia-Romagna. Later, his photography related to Italian art history. After 1980 he concentrated on photographically documenting the heritage of Novara, Lake Orta and Val d'Ossola. For this work, in 1981 he was awarded a national Umberto Zanotti Bianco Prize.

• First Biennial International Photographic Exhibition, Venice, 1957.

• Illustration — Lo spazio della memoria. Piazza della Vetra nel 1953 ("The space of memory. Vetra's square in 1953") – Milan, 1953 • Illustration — Anzola d'Ossola, 1964 • Illustration — Ancona, 1969 • Illustration — Manifesto strappato ("Ripped poster") – Venice, 1971 • Illustration — Rocca Canavese, 1979 • Illustration — Venetian Lagoon, 1982 • Illustration — Lady's portrait, 1970