A legend.
One of the most important and influential fashion photographers of our time.
Mario Testino wanted to pay tribute to our country showing all his love for Italy, with a book with a simple and immediate title: Ciao!.

Published by Taschen with the contribution of Alain Elkan, the extra-large coffee table book is a wonderful ode to Italy, the country where Testino’s origins are rooted.
Born in Lima in 1954 into a wealthy, traditional, believing and conservative family, the first of six children, he received an iron and catholic upbringing, at a young age he thought he would embrace ecclesiastical life.
He first moved to Brazil and then in 1976 went to London to study photography, he did his apprenticeship at the studios of John Vickers and Paul Nugent. He lived on a hospital floor converted into a dwelling, he had no money and to finance himself he worked as a waiter and dyed his hair pink.
London, and even before his Brazilian adolescence, allowed him to hover over all those mental restrictions that in Peru he felt were oppressive, gave him intellectual freedom and helped him to shape his photographic language.

“My grandfather was born in Lavagna, which is a small town on the Gulf of Tigullio, a few minutes drive from Portofino. Unfortunately I couldn’t spend much time with him, because he died when I was still a child. But the image of this strong and elegant man, with very white hair, has remained etched in my memory. He moved to South America when he was eighteen. And that’s why my father and I were born in Peru. When I was a boy, I managed to get an Italian passport. And I think that’s what allowed me to become a photographer and make the career that I did.”

These are the words of the artist in the preface of the book published in only 100 autographed copies, 140 unpublished shots divided into three chapters: “In giro”, “Alla moda” and “Al mare”. The immense beauty of our country and its inhabitants immortalized and enhanced by bright and vivid colors and the nostalgia that black and white can give.
The fashion shows, the religious festivals of southern Italy, the mosaics of the Roman swimming pool of the Foro Italico, Valentino with Elle Macpherson and Claudia Schiffer, men playing cards, Franca Sozzani with Dolce & Gabbana with a young and beautiful Monica Bellucci, sunny beaches full of people, elegant buildings and popular interiors, in short, Italy.

“Slowly, but with great determination, your country has conquered much of my life and my heart and has become the ideal place for learning. Through all the senses, none excluded.”

Since 1983, when his first work appeared on Vogue, Mario Testino has been praised and revered. His shots have redefined the canons of photographic aesthetics linked to fashion, placing the bar of his work higher than all the others.