Interview with Giancolombo
by Alessandro Luigi Perna. Milan, may 2003.
Cortina, 1958: “Brigitte Bardot? A fairy tale girl".
“Brigitte Bardot? A fairy tale girl ". So begins the photojournalist Giancolombo in an old interview to a newspaper, in which he tells the exclusive report on the actress that he realized in Cortina for Paris Match in 1958.
The Beginnings
All began 10 years before. After the degree in Venice, Giancolombo was bound for university - engineering:
"take this for granted!". It was a family of engineers.
The Case of Rina Fort
One of the first reportages thar left a mark on his career
was the case of Caterina Fort, a girl from Friuli known as Rina. "She had an affair with a man, a sicilian called Pippo Ricciardi. Too bad, Ricciardi was married and that she didn't know".
The Big Hit of Bellentani
The big hit of Bellentani went this way: "The morning of september 16th 1948, while I was home still sleeping, a phone call arrived, waking me up witha a start".
"Gian, hurry, come! They are smashing the agency!" was shout out the receiver.
The Churchill Exploit
In 1951, Giancolombo is in Venice, the town he knows like
the back of his hand. This time the target was to take no less than Churchill, the english premier who determined the fate
of England through WWII.
The Trick of the Romanov Wedding
Along came the so-called "Wedding of the Century" - as newspapers labelled it. "The overseen wedding in Cannes
in 1952, between Florentine Countess Sveva della Gherardesca and Russian Prince Nicola Romanov".
Conclusions
The Agency after the '60 undergoes a change and becomes mainly a hystorical archive. "Many fellow workers went away leading their way. Magazines hired their own photographers.