Interview with Giancolombo            

The Beginnings

All began 10 years before. After the degree in Venice, Giancolombo was bound for the university - engineering: "take this for granted!” It was a family of engineers: hisgrandfather, his father, and now himself. A matter of tradition. It was the period of fascism, the years when the world was running to 2nd World War. He had just begun to attend when he was told: "Giancolombo! Class of 1921, you are University voluntary".”Who? Me?". There was nothing to be done: skilful and enlisted. Three months later, he was in Albania, mountain artillery sergeant. In prospect he had September 8, a year as a prisoner in a German concentration camp in Poland, and two fingers cut off by the blast of a grenade as a gunsmith officer. Discharged, he returned to Venice to resume what he had given up: the Faculty of Engineering. The father of course wanted him to graduate. But Giancolombo didn’t succeed well in studying. The experience of war affected him.

"Once in Milan my cousin Luciano Emmer, the movie director, lent me a hand". After being offered a short experience in movie production, "I was introduced to the director of a weekly communist magazine. I was supplied with a Leica and sent to interview workmen in factories".

He met another cousin, the photographer Claudio Emmer,

in via Bagutta where he had a Studio. Claudio gave him a room in exchange for support in photographic sessions at Teatro alla Scala. "So I began to be a photographer my own way. Then it happened I went back to Venice. There was a circus performing in Piazza San Marco. I had the idea". The result was close-up photos of horses and acrobats on the background of the Basilica.

 

  

 

Giancolombo thought to offer those photos to “Corriere Lombardo”. They were published and he received a huge appreciation as well: it was the first time as a freelancer. "Then, I met the director of the newspaper at a dinner in

via Bagutta. The restaurant was the meeting point of journalists, artists and the trendy intelligentsia of Milan.

The photographer Patellani - who will become famous - resigned, and the director was complaining for having been left on the spot". Giancolombo offered his services. The day after he was borrowed with two Leica and obtained a pay

of 20,000 lire per month. He did the rest: he get hold of a

raincoat and a wide brimmed hat, as it was in fashion; he put his hands on an American paratroopers motorcycle - a bidet as it was called, because of its small size in order to be transported and more easily parachuted. "So strange-looking, I went chasing photographs".

 

               

 

In 1948, political meetings were countless: there were free elections, for the first time since the fascism. One day, there was De Gasperi in Piazza Duomo to harangue the crowds. "And it was raining cats and dogs. I had the idea of climbing up behind the stage to photograph the expanse of umbrellas held on by the audience. It was impressive". He was a stroke of genius: the photo ended on the front page and the United Press bought the negative for 10,000 lira, sending it to newspapers all around the world. This way started the partnership with one of the most important agencies in the world: he took the pictures in Milan and they distributed them in America.

He didn’t see much money. He was sleeping in a cubby hole in via della Spiga. And there, just using recovered planking, he managed to build a darkroom.

"The first time a shot of mine was published, my name

was transformed by Gian Colombo in Giancolombo, due to

a misprint or perhaps for simplification". And no doubt he liked it very much. "I found it beautiful, distinctive; and why not? Easy to remember". A nice advantage for this job. If he had still been in doubt till then on his future as a photographer, "because I was still young, and my father insisted with engineering", now there were none anymore, that it would have been his way. Now he was no longer a Gian Battista Colombo whatsoever. Indeed now he had a nickname: Giancolombo.

"One morning I was going to Innocenti to convince Press Office to give me a Lambretta. I passed by the Dazio (the former custom bureau - translator’s note.). It was a fuss:

the customs officer was gone mad and he shot anyone approaching. And what did I do? I approached". Of course.

He succeeded in taking a photo of the man with the gun at

a window of the courtyard.

The career was growing: the day after, six pictures on the front page of Corriere Lombardo and many praises. And of course another nickname, one of many he will have. "Lambretta! - yelled to my windows by the employees of Corriere Lombardo when they passed to call me". That time, few people could afford a telephone line.

 

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