Tony Boccaccio

In another life, Anthony Boccaccio must have been a Renaissance painter. His use of light, shadow and the human form take us back to a time when the celebration of the body was the challenge accepted by great artists from Michelangelo to Titian. Indeed, much of the inspiration for the nudes in this collection came from the great masterpieces of Italian painting, frescos and sculptures he saw daily while living in Rome, Italy.

The sensual for Boccaccio is more interesting visually than the erotic. Though no one could deny that this collection of beautiful bodies calls forth a certain erotic tone, it is an echo of innocence and purity. There is an Ideal at work in his photography, and although most of his models do not posses the ideal body (whatever that is!) Boccaccio is quick to say that the body is not important in itself but only as it points to and reflects the beauty and mystery hidden beneath the form.

Boccaccio began his career with National Geographic Magazine in 1971. Since then, his camera has taken him to over thirty countries in as many years. Like most photographers, he is a series of contrasts: His lens has captured the frozen landscapes of Iceland and the sweltering jungles of the Amazon. He is probably most known for his beautiful travel photography, yet while working with the human figure, his sensitivity rivals that of the great painters. Indeed, his artistic life began as a young painter trained in the classical manner. He studied classical piano at the prestigious Eastman School of Music and taught himself to play the bluegrass banjo. He lived in Brazil as a teenager and Italy as a college student. In 1995, he returned to Rome, Italy to continue his painting and to learn how to sculpt in the classical manner under one of Rome's most gifted sculptors, Alessandro Nocera.

"Painting was my first passion. My grandmother catapulted me into oil painting when I was only 12 years old. To get me out of her hair one day, she sent me to Washington Square Park in New York City loaded up with canvas, brushes, paints and easel. I told her I did not know how to paint; she told me to just put the canvas up, look cute, and all the old ladies in the park would gather around to teach me. That is exactly what happened and by the time I was 16, I was painting on commissions and selling my work for more than the monthly mortgage payment on our home. I discovered the camera when I was 17. My high school art teacher took me into the darkroom to see how printing was done. When I saw that first image miraculously appear I was hooked. That night I announced to my family that I was no longer going to paint, that I was going to be a photographer. My father, old Italian that he was, almost killed me, since I gave half of all my commissions to him. My mother intervened and the rest is history."

... More on Tony Boccaccio

While a student at the University of Rochester, he was invited by Kodak to hang out with their photographers who provided him with valuable training and tons of free film and development for four years. This opportunity proved invaluable and eventually led to working with National Geographic Magazine.

Boccaccio's very first photograph was of a man, the figure of Hercules in the Orion constellation. He was 13 years old and had just purchased his first camera, a Mark IV plastic box camera. He took it apart and rigged it to make time exposures of the stars , his hobby at the time was astronomy. He still has the negative!

"I believe this first impulse to point my camera upward, to the heavens, is what set the framework for my future photography: to capture what can't easily be seen by the naked eye. To capture the heroic, god like beauty and grandeur of the human form."

The first male nude photograph was in 1976, in the Mohave desert. In 1978 he began Dreams, portfolio of color images taken directly from his own dream diaries. Black and white photography of the male nude came late in his career and in 1992 he began creating a series of fine art portfolios on various themes, the first being Sleeping Beauties. His most recent work, entitled Imago Dei, includes many of the images in the Manstouch collection.

From Iceland to the Amazon

While on assignment in Iceland for National Geographic Magazine, he fell off the Surtsey volcano into the Arctic Ocean. It was October and the water was below freezing. His young Iceland guide jumped into the surf and pulled him out unconscious and not breathing. He gave him mouth to mouth and a half bottle of good Irish whisky to revive him. During the same assignment, he crashed in a plane but he and his pilot survived to tell the story.

"I put the camera on automatic with a 250 photo magazine and turned it on just before we hit. The camera flew around the cabin clicking away until it jammed at number 86! At Geographic the only thing that counts is getting the shot!"

In 1972, he read a small article in the New York Times about the construction of the TransAmazonic highway, an impressive road cut across the Amazon jungle. Without hesitation, he dropped everything and headed off into the world's largest rainforest. He survived a forest fire, a boat sinking, a gold miner who tried to have him shot and was lost in the jungle alone for 3 days until by chance a helicopter pilot saw him and brought him back to civilization. He returned 20 years later and spent one year photographing the social and ecological destruction of the Amazon basin for a book that will be published in Brazil next year.

CLIENTS ­ AWARDS ­ EXHIBITIONS ­ REPRESENTATION

Getty Images/The Image Bank, Workbookstock, Inc. and Desert Dolphin stock photo agencies represent his photography worldwide. His work is in the Neikrug Gallery New York permanent collection of fine art.

Boccaccio has served as an associate professor in the department of Computer Education at Gonzaga University in Washington State, taught Photography and Visual Thinking at Spokane Falls Community College and served as a member its Advertising Arts Advisory Board. He has a Masters of Education from Gonzaga University.

SOME CLIENTS

National Geographic Magazine, Time Magazine, Eastman Kodak Company, McGraw Hill, Saturday Evening Post, Psychology Today, Natural History Magazine, Digital Microwave Corporation, Reader's Digest, Hewlett Packard Corporation, Fortune, Washington Evergreen Magazine, The Smithsonian, Dana Perfume Corporation, Hilton Hotels, Vogel Associates, Franciscan Communications, Holt Rinehart Winston, Apple Computer, CBS Records, Newsweek Magazine, Simon & Schuster, H.T.H. Corporation Japan, Banco do Brazil S.A., Montreal Engenieria S.A., Brazil Invision, Ltd., IBM, Woman's Day Magazine, East / West Magazine, Doubleday, Inc., Ikegami, Inc.

PUBLICATIONS

Il Libro Dell¹Anno ­ Loyola University Rome Campus Yearbook,. Rome, Italy (Limited Edition 1971)
Beyond Service - Eastman Kodak Company (1985)
Conquering the Amazon: Brazil's Jungle Highway - Gannet Publishing (1973)
Where Madness Follows: The Search For Gold In The Amazon Jungle (Publication December 2003)
The Marvels of Animal Behavior - 1972 National Geographic Society
This Changing Earth - January 1973 National Geographic Magazine
We¹re Doing Something About The Weather - National Geographic Magazine April 1972
The Great Lakes - National Geographic Magazine August 1973
The Rebirth of Mount St. Helens - National Geographic Traveler
Am I Free? - Argus Communications Book
Street Urchins of Colombia - Natural History Magazine
Sports Photography - Eastman Kodak Company
Hawaii - The Land and the People - Gallery Books, New York
The West - Images of America - Gallery Books, New York
Understanding the New Testament - Franciscan Communication Center
The Mass - A Catholic Perspective - Franciscan Communication Center
Mary: A Woman For Our Time - Teleketics, Franciscan Communications
The Kodak Book of 35mm Photography - Eastman Kodak
Faces of Washington - Washington Evergreen Magazine

CINEMAGRAPHIC WORK

Los Gamines (Colombia) Documentary for Don Bosco Films, NY
The Dream (Brazil) Documentary for Don Bosco Films,
All The Questions - promotional film for Eastman Kodak

"His style is rich and varied. You always know where you stand with Boccaccio. He speaks his mind and reacts to life on a visceral level. He is not afraid to take risks in his photography. He follows his instincts. We think of him as part Ansel Adams and part Hemingway."
- Paul Ambrose, Desert Dolphin Agency