Mario Finotti | |
|---|---|
 Mario Finotti in 2023 | |
| Born | March 19, 1950 Novara |
| Nationality | Italian |
| Citizenship | Italian |
| Occupation(s) | photographer, journalist |
| Spouse | Maria Laura Borgini |
| Children | 1 |
| Awards | Qualified European Photographer (QEP) |
Mario Finotti (born March 19, 1950) is an Italian photographer and journalist.
He was born in Novara in 1950, [1] living with his family in via Dolores Bello. [2] At the age of ten, on hot summer afternoons, he often sneaked into the nearby Faraggiana-Ferrandi natural history museum, where he observed with fascination the stuffed animals and artifacts from Africa and South America, brought back by explorers Ugo Ferrandi, Guido Boggiani, and Alessandro Faraggiana. This early exposure to an exotic world sparked the curiosity that would later characterise his professional career. [2]
He attended the Tornielli Bellini secondary school for teacher education, graduating in 1968. [3] [4]
Thanks to the fact that the area where he lived was, at the time, a true "photography district" — home to two historic studios, the laboratories of Carlo Anadone and the Lavatelli brothers — he began to take an interest in photography in the early 1970s, choosing it as his preferred medium of expression and identifying Anadone himself as one of his key influences. [5] [6] [2] This activity marked the beginning of his professional career, which started at the advertising agency of Aldo Beldì — at the time one of the leading figures in Italian advertising and among the first to offer full-service campaigns.
Initially working in a secondary role, he later took on the management of the photographic studio, although this experience lasted only one year. [7] He then moved into newspaper journalism, first at Gazzetta del Popolo — another brief stint — and later at the provincial editorial office of La Stampa, with which he collaborated for 34 years. He also worked with Corriere di Novara, which lists him among its contributors. [8] [9] [10] [2] His work gave him a thorough understanding of the Novara journalism scene, although he never felt fully part of it. [11] In a 2021 interview, he stated that covering two criminal cases — the Mazzotti and Graneris trials held at the Novara court between 1977 and 1978 — was fundamental to his professional development. [12] [13]
In 1973 he married Laura Borgini from Garbagna Novarese, to whose village he later moved. [14] [1] [15]
Since 1985, he has produced numerous reports for the Istituto Geografico De Agostini, both within Italy and internationally. [16]
He considered political involvement on several occasions, running for municipal elections as a candidate for the Italian Communist Party (PCI) in Novara in 1983 and in Garbagna Novarese in 1990. [17] [1]
Alongside his work as a photojournalist, he developed a passion for photography in the advertising sector and in literary production — primarily photographic books — which over time led him to prioritize these pursuits over journalism. [18] The first volume mentioned in official biographies dates back to 1980, concerning the De Pagave retirement home in Novara and produced with the journalist Mario Giarda. Between the 1990s and 2000s, he received numerous commissions from public institutions, including the municipality of Gattico, the National Confederation of Crafts (Confederazione Nazionale dell'Artigianato), Emergency and the Camera di Commercio of Novara. [16]
It was in the literary field that, between 1998 and 2001, he accepted a commission that marked a turning point in his career. The Department of Culture of the Province of Novara tasked him with creating a work focused on interpreting the local landscape through the lens of industrial archaeology. At the time, the provincial administration was responsible for much of the landscape and territorial planning. During discussions over the project's scope, Finotti proposed dividing the work into three parts, each dedicated to a different aspect of the landscape and its history, to be carried out over three consecutive years: [19] [16] the first part, accompanied by an exhibition, on industrial archaeology and entitled The places of production (I luoghi della produzione); [20] the second entitled The places of worship (I luoghi del culto); the third on spontaneous architecture, that is to say centered on spontaneous architecture — that is, landscape interventions born out of the immediate needs of ordinary people, which often shape the territory more profoundly than works by renowned architects, entitled The places of everyday life (I luoghi del quotidiano). [21] The first part, sponsored and produced by Nicola Trussardi, with whom Finotti had direct contact, is regarded by the author as one of the best catalogues of his work, despite its polished and advertising-oriented approach. [20] Finotti acknowledges that the qualitative leap was partly due to his decision to use a view camera, a tool particularly well-suited to architectural photography. [22]
| Novara seen by Mario Finotti [2] | |
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Having documented life in Novara for over half a century, Finotti shared his views on the city in a 2024 interview with La Stampa journalist Barbara Cottavoz.  Speaking with evident bitterness, he described Novara as an impoverished city, in various respects. The first issue he highlighted is urban decay, illustrated by the example of the many shuttered storefronts along Corso Cavour. In the past, living in the city centre offered the opportunity to engage with a vibrant and diverse social fabric through the lively world of shops and small businesses. Today, this vitality has been lost, replaced by offices and professional studios. He also pointed to the absence of prominent cultural figures in Novara, such as poets and writers like Sandro Bermani and Giulio Genocchio. The same, he noted, applies to the political sphere, which he saw as lacking personalities who are respected across party lines for the clarity of their vision — such as Ezio Leonardi, Armando Riviera, and Maurizio Pagani. Finally, his critique extended to the business sector, which, in his view, no longer had a meaningful impact on local life. He concluded his reflections by expressing regret over the many talented individuals who have left the city in order to have their professionalism recognized elsewhere, such as the musician Massimo Fiocchi Malaspina. He ended with the hope that the artistic, archaeological, and ethnological heritage still stored in the warehouses of Biandrate will once again be made accessible to the public. |
Since 2000, he has collaborated with the series of volumes published by the Consorzio Mutue of Novara, an organization primarily engaged in providing health care coverage, which in that same year began publishing two annual volumes reserved for its members: one released at Christmas, focusing on cultural, landscape, and historical aspects of Novara and featuring contributions from various local scholars; and another, published in May, dedicated to biographical profiles of notable figures from Novara's past. [23] In this context, he has worked alongside numerous local historians of note, including Emiliana Mongiat, Lorenzo Del Boca, Giampietro Morreale, and Giancarlo Andenna, as well as writers such as Sebastiano Vassalli. [16] [24]
Since 2010, he has served as the stage photographer for the Teatro Coccia, documenting its productions. [25] This professional experience is also a source of strong emotional involvement for him, due to the evocative power of working in a place so rich in history and art. [2]
During the same period, he began a personal exploration more oriented towards artistic expression, reinterpreting — through a subjective lens — the themes that had long engaged him: landscapes, works of art, the human figure, and everyday objects. His approach drew on personal experience and aimed to evoke emotions and memories, with particular attention to the traces that time leaves on places and things. [26]
In 2023 he donated his rich archive to the Historical Institute of the Resistance of Novara: five boxes of photographs on Novara city life between the 80s and 90s. For the occasion, an exhibition was organized at the Broletto. [27] [28]
In the 2021 interview he talks about himself by not defining himself as a paparazzo at all, but on the contrary having always cultivated and preferred advertising, landscape and industrial archaeology photography. [29] The interest in the landscape of the southern part of the Province of Novara (Bassa Novarese), in particular, has been at the origin of several works and exhibitions. [15]
Regarding the transition to digital photography, he admits that it affected him and that it took him a few months to master the new equipment and the post-production technique of the images. However, he considers himself satisfied with the transition, since the work is less demanding, with few contraindications, with full control of each single step of the image management[. [30] However, he warns about the disadvantages of digital, mainly related to the contradictions that it introduces into the language of photography itself, given that total control easily allows one to distance oneself from reality. [31]
He considers several photographers as models for his work, of whom he has great respect, including Gianni Berengo Gardin e Francesco Radino. [32]
His opinion on portrait is very clear: to portray a person it is necessary to know and understand them, therefore to be involved in their experience, without prejudice, in order to make choices that lead to the most faithful representation. [33]
In 2000, he was awarded the Qualified European Photographer (QEP) title in the portrait category by a special commission convened in Dijon, becoming one of the first in Italy to receive this recognition. [5]
The interest in history, characters, work, environment and architecture are the basis of the creation of dozens of photographic books and many personal exhibitions on these themes. [5]
Some shots by Mario Finotti in the church of San Michele Arcangelo in Garbagna Novarese.
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