Frammenti di moda. Il racconto di Claudio Mainardi
18.5.2025, 5:00 PM
As part of the exhibition “Photography is Fashion”, Lab27 will host photographer Claudio Mainardi on Sunday, May 4, at 5:00 PM. This is an opportunity to explore the stories, fragments of life, and career of a photographer who, since the early 1970s, has witnessed the evolution of costume and fashion, the world of advertising, and cinema, working for brands and companies that have shaped the landscape of Italy’s Northeast. In doing so, we also confront the technological changes that have transformed the editorial world over the decades, as well as the very profession of photography. Yet Claudio Mainardi’s passion remains intact, as evidenced by his personal reportage and his educational and artistic collaborations.
Claudio Mainardi was born in Venice. Since the late 1960s, he has worked as a photographer in the fields of architecture and art, later specializing in fashion and advertising. In the early 1980s, he curated the photographic sections for two publications by an Italian artist: Insania and Divergenze Parallele. He has also worked in cinema, serving as director of photography for the 1983 feature film Divergenze Parallele, which was later presented at the 40th Venice International Film Festival in the De Sica section. From 1994 to 2001, he taught fashion photography at the ISFAV Institute in Padua. In 1997, he presented a solo exhibition titled “Women and Diamonds: A Tribute to Beauty” at the Piano Nobile of Caffè Pedrocchi in Padua, featuring 40 black-and-white portraits showcasing the finest creations of a renowned Italian jewelry brand. In 1998, he exhibited in “Fragments of Fashion” at the Galleria Civica in Padua, a retrospective tracing thirty years of costume and fashion through photographs taken from the early 1970s to the present. In 2004 and 2005, he gave lectures at Ca’ Foscari University in Venice. Between 2002 and 2016, he produced a black-and-white photographic reportage in Havana, Cuba, for the publication of the photo book La Habana, la perla e l’ombra (Vianello Libri). This work was later presented in two exhibitions: in 2014 at Galleria Cavour in Padua, and in 2016 at La Terrazza a Mare in Lignano Sabbiadoro. In 2017–2018, he worked as a set photographer on the film On My Shoulders directed by Antonello Belluco. Currently, he teaches fashion photography at the ISFAV Institute in Padua and continues to work on various photographic projects in Naples and Sicily. He is also engaged in a large-scale reportage on Orthodox religious ceremonies in Greece and on rural labor in Cuba. Since 1978, he has lived in Padua.
Frammenti di moda. Il racconto di Claudio Mainardi
18.5.2025, 5:00 PM
As part of the exhibition “Photography is Fashion”, Lab27 will host photographer Claudio Mainardi on Sunday, May 4, at 5:00 PM. This is an opportunity to explore the stories, fragments of life, and career of a photographer who, since the early 1970s, has witnessed the evolution of costume and fashion, the world of advertising, and cinema, working for brands and companies that have shaped the landscape of Italy’s Northeast. In doing so, we also confront the technological changes that have transformed the editorial world over the decades, as well as the very profession of photography. Yet Claudio Mainardi’s passion remains intact, as evidenced by his personal reportage and his educational and artistic collaborations.
Claudio Mainardi was born in Venice. Since the late 1960s, he has worked as a photographer in the fields of architecture and art, later specializing in fashion and advertising. In the early 1980s, he curated the photographic sections for two publications by an Italian artist: Insania and Divergenze Parallele. He has also worked in cinema, serving as director of photography for the 1983 feature film Divergenze Parallele, which was later presented at the 40th Venice International Film Festival in the De Sica section. From 1994 to 2001, he taught fashion photography at the ISFAV Institute in Padua. In 1997, he presented a solo exhibition titled “Women and Diamonds: A Tribute to Beauty” at the Piano Nobile of Caffè Pedrocchi in Padua, featuring 40 black-and-white portraits showcasing the finest creations of a renowned Italian jewelry brand. In 1998, he exhibited in “Fragments of Fashion” at the Galleria Civica in Padua, a retrospective tracing thirty years of costume and fashion through photographs taken from the early 1970s to the present. In 2004 and 2005, he gave lectures at Ca’ Foscari University in Venice. Between 2002 and 2016, he produced a black-and-white photographic reportage in Havana, Cuba, for the publication of the photo book La Habana, la perla e l’ombra (Vianello Libri). This work was later presented in two exhibitions: in 2014 at Galleria Cavour in Padua, and in 2016 at La Terrazza a Mare in Lignano Sabbiadoro. In 2017–2018, he worked as a set photographer on the film On My Shoulders directed by Antonello Belluco. Currently, he teaches fashion photography at the ISFAV Institute in Padua and continues to work on various photographic projects in Naples and Sicily. He is also engaged in a large-scale reportage on Orthodox religious ceremonies in Greece and on rural labor in Cuba. Since 1978, he has lived in Padua.
