Biography
Giancolombo, born Gian Battista Colombo in 1921 in Venice,
is eleven years old when he takes interest in photography, and practices it.
While he’s attending the University, Second World War cancels his projects to take a degree, for he joins the army and is sent to fight. Coming home he feels he needs a new passion to resume his life, and he turns back to photography. He leaves Venice and moves to Milan.
He becomes Giancolombo in 1946, due a misprint in the
credit of a shot published by Corriere Lombardo.
He was the right person at the right place, and he is committed instead of Federico Patellani who was dismissing.
In 1949 he sets his own company, ‘Giancolombo News Photos’, which all the press begins to refer to.
International press too: Paris Match, Jours de France, Life, Daily Express, Picture Post, Schweizer Illustriert, and Stern. Photographic agencies all over the world release pictures in Italy through his news agency. London Express, Reporters Associèes and Europress in Paris, Birnback in NewYork,
Ondas in Madrid and Lisbon, IMS in Sweden, Norway,
Finland and Denmark, and others in Belgium, Nederland, Mexico, Poland, Japan, Greece and Turkey.
His career is plenty of scoops, involving famous personalities like Winston Churchill swimming at Venice beach, or
Romanov-Gherardesca wedding, which he was the sole reporter to attend.
But his personality shines through everyday life shots, taken either to the smallest Italian village or to the biggest European Capital, and through portaits claimed by celebrities themselves.
In 1964, Giancolombo sets up, with other colleagues, AFIP (Associazione Fotografi Italiani Professionisti) and AIRF (Associazione Italiana Reporters Fotografici).
Giancolombo, 1921 - 2005
