Massimo Vitali’s career (Como, 1944) began in the 60s when took a job as a photo reporter, working with many magazines and agencies in Italy and Europe. He also met Simon Guttman, founder of Report, and this would become fundamental for his growth as a concerned photographer. He later began working as a photography director in television and cinema and focused more on photography in the 90s as a mean of artistic research and on well-planned pictures.

In the summer of 1994, he took his first picture at the beach of Marina di Pietrasanta which would mark the start of his acclaimed Beach Series and that would consecrate him as one of the major photographers on the international scene. In the first pictures, it’s already noticeable his operative technique which will make him stand out in the following years. Examples are using a water bottle as a tripod, a big format for the camera (20x25) able to capture with accuracy every detail, and immortalized unaware actors in front of him, which would help him create a socio-anthropological manual of the Italian identity. Frontal and elevated vision detaches him from the observed reality and allows him to witness wide landscapes and human interactions at the same time. Here, different micro-stories of everyday life are mercilessly portrayed, the natural element, and the public and private spheres overlap in an eternalized moment of time.

In the summer of 2020, the photographer reports the changes in humanity after lockdown with Massa capannina bianca - Vogue hope, june 2020, where it’s noticeable the lust for freedom is halted by the looming shadow of a new lockdown. This gradually loses ground to the glorious wholeness of Italianity that finds its expression in the rocky Manarola.