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Among the most important photographers on the international scene, Giovanni Gastel was born in Milan to Ida Visconti di Modrone and Giuseppe Gastel, an entrepreneur. He completed his first aesthetic and cultural training in the theatre, also influenced by his uncle Luchino Visconti, a famous film and theatre director, acting in an experimental company. He wrote poetry and at just 16 years old, published Kasbah. In 1972 he began taking photographs. Between 1975 and 1976 he began producing still lifes for the auction house Christie's and developed the visual identity of various Italian companies. From the early 1980s to today, Gastel has collaborated with more than 50 Italian and international magazines and published around 130 covers; He has produced more than 500 campaigns and catalogues for various fashion houses and major beauty, jewellery and design brands (among his most notable collaborations: Vogue, Elle and Vanity Fair and world-famous brands such as Dior, Trussardi, Krizia, Tod's and Versace); he has taken more than 300 black and white and colour portraits. His work has been marked by the privileged use of the optical bench and 20 x 25 Polaroid plates, and then opened up to digital technologies, intuiting the new potential they offered to his creativity. In 1997, the Milan Triennale dedicated his first solo exhibition to him, curated by Germano Celant. In 2002 he received the Oscar for photography at the La Kore Oscar della Moda event. He has exhibited in solo exhibitions in Milan, Venice, New York, Paris and Japan. He has published several books, especially poetry. In 2015, the autobiography “Un eterno istante” was published by Ed. Mondadori and the following year, the monograph published by Silvana Editoriale, edited by Germano Celant, which collects images, documents, statements, testimonies and works to form an unpublished volume on the entire history of the photographer. Gastel is a permanent member of the Polaroid Museum in Chicago and since 2013 he has been President of the Association of Professional Photographers (AFIP).