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| Best of Photographers |
Roberto APPIANI
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Born in Monza (Milan, Italy) in 1961, Roberto has taken a great interest in nature, especially for mineralogy and photography since his childhood. He began mineral collecting with the help of his father Luigi, a very clever mountaineer when he was twelve. In 1980 he became interested in photography, and has since published many images and received prizes in international competitions.
With the help of his friends - both mineral collectors and photo fans (in particular Claudio Albertini, the naturalist association GNB of Busto Arsizio, and the photo club Don Primo Mazzolari di Vedano al Lambro) - he is continually improving his photographic technique and personal style. To achieve this, he is continually attending meetings and exhibits, reading specialized books and magazines, studying photographic criticism, computer graphics, advertising photography and techniques for light, colour and picture composition.
In 1990 he succeeded in changing his hobby into a job when some of his nature photos were published in home magazines and specialized literature. He was also asked to join a photo competition jury. Since then, collaboration with leading publishers such as De Agostini, Fabbri-RCS and Mondadori has given Roberto the chance to create top quality photos, of both minerals and other still life subjects. In addition to minerals and gemstones, he has produced many fine images of glass and crystal art, jewellery and ancient pistols. A personal favorite is a photo that seizes the shot of a muzzle-loader pistol from around 1500 AD.
As a mineral photographer and author, Roberto has worked for the past 15 years for Rivista Mineralogica Italiana and for 10 years for Lapis. His photos have also been published in the Mineralogical Record and Airone, a well-known Italian nature magazine. Roberto has also published more than 5500 photographs in four mineral encyclopaedias: The Magic World of Minerals and Gems (1992); Mineral Collection (1995); Earth Treasures (1999) and Minerals and Gems (2001). Roberto's photos have also been published in several other mineralogy books, including Devero Valley and Its Minerals by C. Albertini (1991), Malenco Valley (1993) and Bregaglia and Codera Valley (1995) by F. Bedognè and others, Vigezzo Valley by V. Mattioli and others (1995), and The Minerals of Brosso Mine by The Regional Museum of Natural Sciences of Turin (2001). He is very proud of his latest book, Tutto Minerali (All Minerals) by A. Guastoni (2003), which contains 400 photos taken of museum and private collections.
He has collaborated on projects with many museums, among which are the Natural History Museum of Milan, the Department of Science of Earth of the University of Milan, the Regional Museum of Natural Sciences of Turin, the University La Sapienza of Roma, the Centre Ginocchi of Crodo, Euratom Research Centre of Ispra, Zannato Museum of Montecchio Maggiore, the University of Pisa and its Museum by the Carthusian Monastery of Pisa, the Museum National d'Histoire of Paris, the University Museum of Oslo. For the Planetarium of Milan, Roberto has photographed meteorites for multimedia and web site use. In 2000 and in 2002, he worked for the Mineralogical Royal Museum of Federico II University in Naples producing photos for the museum’s bicentenary. This project included more than 200 photos of the mineral, palaeontology, anthropology, and zoology collections at the museum.
Today, at age 40, Roberto has given up a successful career as a manager of a leading industrial chemical company to realize his dream of becoming a professional free-lance photographer and graphic artist. His specialties include advertising photography and graphics, still life and macro still life, with a particular attention to mineralogy and palaeontology. In his work, Roberto uses a 135 Olympus camera with Olympus and Zeiss Luminar lenses, 6x7 and 6x8 with RZ67 Mamiya Professional Camera, and the digital Canon Eos with macro lenses of 100 and 65 f 2.8.
Today Roberto continues mountain trekking, searching for minerals and nature photography with the same passion as always.
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Roberto APPIANI at the 2003 Munich Show |
Photo C.Pélisson©
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