Mimmo Cattarinich – The Tale of a Master of Light

Of ancient Dalmatian origins, he was born in Rome in 1937 and lived there until his passing in 2017.

For nearly 50 years he worked in his studio overlooking Largo Federico Fellini, at the top of Via Veneto, right in the heart of what came to be known as la dolce vita romana. His work embraced cinema, reportage, portraiture, glamour and advertising.

He was one of the historical leading figures of Italian photography. Although his fame is often linked to the assignments on the most prestigious film sets, he always insisted that he did not see himself as a specialist but simply as a photographer. Those who knew him recognized in him a form of self criticism without resentment, a defining trait of his personality and of the professional seriousness with which he approached and completed every assignment.

His reliability and rigor earned him countless opportunities at the highest levels and across the most diverse fields of photography, allowing him to build a remarkable career. His story began in the mid 1950s in the De Laurentiis studios. At a very young age he started as a darkroom assistant and later as a still photographer working with directors such as Mario Bava, Alessandro Blasetti, Mauro Bolognini, Dino Risi, Luciano Salce, Carlo Lizzani and Patroni Griffi, and later on the sets of Federico Fellini, Marco Ferreri, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Michelangelo Antonioni, Hugh Hudson, Paul Mazursky, Peter Yates, Almodóvar, Bertolucci, Tornatore, Benigni and many others.

For years he alternated his work as a still photographer with portraiture for high profile Italian and international magazines, photographing leading stars including Maria Callas, Claudia Cardinale, Sophia Loren, Peppino De Filippo, Totò, Vittorio De Sica, Alain Delon, Marcello Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve, Henry Fonda, Isabelle Huppert, Faye Dunaway, Rutger Hauer, Mickey Rourke, Brian De Palma, Antonio Banderas, Javier Bardem, Penélope Cruz, Rupert Everett, Steven Seagal and many others, along with major figures in politics, culture and sports.

The lessons he learned from the Masters he worked with were translated into the visual stories he imagined and built, image after image. Cinema remained his greatest love. It taught him the sense of collectiveness, shared sacrifice and the importance of organization. He never saw his work as a project to pursue through scientific method for personal ambition, but rather as a territory of mediation between himself and adventure, travel and the love for things.

Over the years Mimmo followed and created projects that took him anywhere his ability was needed. Milan, Madrid, Barcelona, Paris, London, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Moscow, New York and Los Angeles, and also Argentina, the Amazon, the Maldives and very often Africa. He always worked as a freelance photographer for the most widely read and distributed magazines and newspapers in Italy and the rest of Europe.

MY FATHER

My father, Mimmo Cattarinich, was born in 1937 during the Second World War, and he lived through it entirely, just like his parents, my grandparents, who raised him in an environment that was not wealthy yet healthy and rich in ethics, morality and strong social values.

He was a difficult man, sharp edged, yet perceptive, intelligent and endlessly curious. A traveller with no fixed destination, a nomad of imagery. He expressed his talent from the earliest years of his career, in a field of photography where creativity is granted little room and where the available space is narrow and suffocating.

The still photographer, as Americans call it, nothing more than a camera meant to record what the movie camera is filming. Nothing else. The handbook explains in a few lines that the photographer must stand parallel to the lens and point in the exact same direction. And yet my father transformed this role into something that made him known within a very short time, gifting us shots of authentic art. He brought touches of real creativity where it seemed there could be none. He shaped the set into a world filled with magic.

Soon he chose to broaden his horizons, embracing reportage, travel, portraiture and finally glamour, his passion.

He never failed expectations. In every field he explored, recognition came quickly and undeniably. He worked for the greatest European magazines, affirmed his name in the American continent and collaborated not only with directors from across the ocean, but also by portraying major actors and Academy Award winners.

He always treated his profession with discipline, seriousness and tireless commitment.

He never allowed improvisation. He never settled for anything less than perfection. Meticulous, exacting, almost obsessive in his search for light.

I shared more than twenty five years of work with him, and I learned almost everything I know, but within his silence. I could steal with my eyes every movement and every shot, but asking was impossible. That is how my father was, protective of his secrets and knowledge, and yet generous in giving the world a sublime and refined photography, almost mannerist in spirit.

He received much from this profession, which shaped the entirety of his life, since he never had other passions.

Every exhibition where his images are displayed is an objective commemoration of his incredible talent. I see him in every single photograph, and I never tire of it.

Armando Cattarinich