[additional]

Release date 2005

Dimensions cm 25 x 34

Pages 112

Illustrations: 12

[/additional]

[shortdesc]

"As soon as I saw meadows in flower, however, I had to halt a surge of uncontrollable enthusiasm, so as not to exhaust all my film reserves. I thank Aboca, who enabled me to express once more my love for nature and for my fellow human beings. Because photography, for me, is the joy of showing to everyone how a beautiful a drop of water on a ginkgo leaf is." Mario De Biasi

[/shortdesc]

The book is a collection of spectacular images of medicinal plants and of their parts, shot live in the field or, in an unusual but attractive approach, during the first stages of transformation: one hundred and twenty shots in colour, hand-held and with natural light.

These are combined with literary quotes relating to the natural world and the environment, accentuating even more the creative role of the Author, one of the most famous contemporary photographers, who certainly does need any introduction.

Mario De Biasi was born in Belluno in 1923, and has made Milan his adopted home since 1938. He started photographing in 1945 with a camera found in the debris of what was Nurnberg, where a year previously he had been deported for forced labour. In 1948 he launched his first personal exhibit. In 1953 he became a professional and joined the editorial staff of the Epoca magazine. He worked for more than thirty year with this well-established weekly magazine published by Mondadori, authoring hundreds of covers and countless reportages around the whole world. He had many exhibits in Italy and abroad and taught workshops on photoreportage techniques and on how to photograph nature from up close. He published 76 photo books. In 1982 he received the "Saint-Vincent" Prize for journalism. In 1994 he was awarded the "Friuli-Venezia Giulia" prize at Spilinbergo. The same year he exhibited and won a prize at the Arles Festival with another 12 famous international photographers. Again in 1994, his famous photo "Italian turn round” was used for the poster for the exhibit "The Italian Metamorphosis, 1943-1968" at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. He features in a recent book, published in English and German, entitled The Faces of Photography: Encounters with 50 Master Photographers of the 20th Century. In 2003 he was nominated "Master of Italian Photography" by FIAF, the Italian Federation of Photographic Associations. In 2006, based upon the proposal of the Councillor for Culture, Vittorio Sgarbi, the Milan city council conferred him its highest award, the "Ambrogino d'oro". He died on 27 May 2013 at the age of 89. Just a few weeks earlier, during the 2013 Photoshow in Milan he was awarded the “Career Prize” for his ability to narrate great events, but also for the sensitivity and gentleness with which he always approached the more humble settings he met on his path.

Natura D'Autore