Oliviero Toscani has died : the family announced in a short press release. "It is with great sadness that we announce that today, January 13, 2025, our beloved Oliviero has embarked on his next journey. We kindly ask for privacy and understanding for this moment that we would like to face in the intimacy of the family. Kirsti Toscani with Rocco, Lola and Ali", reads the note signed by his wife Kirsti and children.
The photographer, 82, was admitted to the Cecina hospital on January 10 due to the worsening of his condition . For two years - as he revealed in a shocking interview with Corriere della Sera on August 28 - he had been suffering from amyloidosis : "In a year I lost 40 kilos. I can't even drink wine anymore: the taste is altered by the medicines" , he said, explaining that he was undergoing an experimental treatment and that he was not afraid of death. "As long as it doesn't hurt. And then I've lived too much and too well, I'm spoiled. I've never had a boss, a salary, I've always been free". He had also spoken of his intention to turn to his "friend Cappato" to choose assisted suicide in Switzerland.
To the end Toscani carried forward the strength of ideas, that of a man who revolutionized the world of photography, scandalizing and sparking debate . From the jeans of 'Whoever loves me, follow me' to the kiss between a priest and a nun, from the faces of those condemned to death to the body of a woman consumed by anorexia, all his campaigns have left their mark. In sixty years of career he has worked in every place in the world and for all the most important magazines. Thousands of portraits, millions of images.
Yet he did not want to be remembered for any one thing in particular, but "for the whole, for the commitment. It is not an image that makes history, it is an ethical, aesthetic, political choice to make with one's work."
In his carnet from John Lennon to Andy Warhol, from Muhammad Ali to Lou Reed, up to the desire to immortalize Jannik Sinner. For fashion from Donna Jordan to Claudia Schiffer, up to Monica Bellucci, but also Carmelo Bene and Federico Fellini.
Born in Milan on February 28, 1942, Toscani published his first photograph in the Corriere at the age of 14: it is the face of Rachele Mussolini, immortalized in Predappio at the burial of the Duce in the family tomb . After graduating in photography at the University of the Arts in Zurich, he made his debut in the world of advertising with the campaign for the Algida croissant. His photographs ended up in Elle, Vogue, GQ, Harper's Bazaar, Esquire, but he also took photos for famous fashion houses such as Valentino, Chanel, Fiorucci, Esprit and Prénatal. The turning point came in 1982 with Benetton: sweaters were the pretext for Toscani to bring to the forefront social issues such as equality, the mafia, the fight against homophobia, the fight against AIDS or the death penalty .
In 1991 he launched the magazine Colors, three years later here is Fabrica, international center for the arts and research of modern communication, whose headquarters is designed by the Japanese star architect Tadao Ando. In 2000 the partnership with the Benetton group ends, following a controversial campaign that uses real photos of people sentenced to death in the United States . Then there are the fashion campaigns for the RaRe brand, focused on homophobia, the collaborations with the Red Cross, with the Istituto Superiore della Sanità, with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and those of social commitment on security, violence against women, anorexia. Precisely on this theme in 2007 Toscani creates a shocking campaign for the Nolita brand, which divides the public and critics, putting the French model and actress Isabelle Caro, 31 kilos and 1.64 meters tall, at the center. In 2007 he created the Razza Umana project, a gallery of portraits of various humanity, a sort of census of all the somatic and social characteristics of the human race.
From 2018 to 2020 he returned to Benetton, relaunching the themes of integration, but was then fired for his statements on the collapse of the Morandi bridge ("But who cares if a bridge collapses?") . Awarded many times - from the Grand Prix de la publicité (1990) to the Golden Lion at the International Advertising Festival in Cannes (1996), from the nomination as an honorary academician of the Academy of Fine Arts of Florence (2010) to the career award of the German Art Director's Club (2019), honorary president of Nessuno Tocchi Caino, Toscani was a candidate for the Chamber with the Radicals in 1996 for the Marco Pannella List and in 2006 for the Rosa nel Pugno.
(Online Union)
