Gastel

Giovanni Gastel (1955). Italian photographer. He is a fashion photographer, according to his official biography. But, in fact, in his fashion photos and still life photos, Giovanni Gastel — born in Milan to a noble family, the nephew of the director Luchino Visconti, a pleasant and refined man with a passion for theater and poetry — often pushes his research and interpretations beyond the level of a pure and simple trade. He began, at a young age, as a photographer for the auction house Christie’s and as a shoe photographer for Mipel. His fortunate meeting, in 1982, with Flavio Lucchini and Gisella Borioli, the editor and director of Mondo Uomo and Donna, allowed him to carry forward, as chief photographer for those magazines, his work with very sophisticated and modern photos. On the other hand, he distinguished himself during the 1980s with his elegant studio work, working just with light. His unmistakable photographic style uses equal measures of irony and poetry. He works “in the old way,” with a rare and precious Deardorf optical bench and only Polaroid or large format plates (20×25). A great experimenter, his manipulations and combinations result in new creations far removed from the original photo, through “old-mix” techniques, crossovers, pictorial re-workings, uncouplings, and stratifications. He has worked for the most prestigious magazines in the world, including Vogue Gioielli, for which he made the famous still life photos with jewels superimposed on fashion portraits. The jewels were positioned to create unusual and curious figures in the shape of a woman’s body with the face given the abstract and precious shapes of brooches and mounted pearls. It was then photographed on a flat surface producing a very effective trompe-l’oeil effect. Among his clients are Dior, Versace, Tod’s, Krizia, Trussardi, Guerlain, Fratelli Rossetti, Mandarina Duck, Hogan, Fragrances, and Pasquale Brun. The exhibits dedicated to him include Fashion in Still Life at Galleria Diaframma in Milan (1986); Trussardi and Gastel at the National Museum of Science and Technology in Milan (1987) and Palermo (1991); Gastel per Donna on Via della Spiga in Milan (1991); Jewellery of Fantasy at the Theater Museum of La Scala in Milan (1992); and his big one-man show Gastel at the Triennial of Milan (1998), which was desired by the art critic Germano Celant. He is a permanent member of the Polaroid Museum of Chicago and president of AFIP (Association of Italian Professional Photographers).