Oliviero Toscani Dies at 82

MILAN – Photographer Oliviero Toscani died on Monday at the Cecina hospital in Tuscany. He was 82. Two years ago, he revealed he was suffering from amyloidosis.

Toscani was born in Milan on Feb. 28, 1942. While he worked for decades with magazines ranging from Elle and Vogue to Harper’s Bazaar and Esquire and with brands such as Missoni, Valentino, Chanel, and Fiorucci, the Italian photographer’s career is indelibly associated with his long-standing partnership with United Colors of Benetton in the 1980s and 1990s, which produced ad campaigns that made history. He was a pioneer in shining a light on issues such as the death penalty, AIDS, racism and homosexuality.

It’s hard to forget the explicit and transgressive images of the senusal kiss between a priest and a nun, a black horse mounting a white one, or the shocking photograph to denounce anorexia of French model Isabelle Caro for a Nolita campaign.

During his career, Toscani worked with important artists, who became friends and subjects of his portraits, such as Mick Jagger, Lou Reed, Carmelo Bene and Federico Fellini.

The iconic slogan “Chi mi ama, mi segua [Those who love me, follow me]” displayed on the backside of model Donna Jordan in Hot Pants for the Jesus Jeans campaign is unforgettable, as is his portrait of an African boy with eyes of different colors, which inspired David Bowie for his song “Black Tie, White Noise.”

Over the years, several of his Benetton ads were banned in various countries and magazines.

WIth Benetton, Toscani in 1991 launched Colors magazine and in 1994 also conceived Fabrica, the company’s think tank.

When Luciano Benetton returned to spearhead the family company in 2017 after exiting in 2012, he called back Toscani, after 17 years. The photographer’s first campaign under this new course showed a primary school class made up of a multiracial group of children.

However, Benetton abruptly fired Toscani in 2020 after the latter’s controversial remarks on the deadly collapse of the Morandi bridge in 2018. Toscani, in an earlier interview back then, had actually stood behind the Benettons during an interview with daily Corriere della Sera, denouncing a slanderous campaign against them. The Benetton family’s image and business took a hit following the collapse of the bridge.  One of the Benettons’ companies was allegedly involved in the collapse of Genoa’s Morandi bridge in August 2018, causing 43 deaths, hundreds of evacuees and much structural damage.

In 2017, in a personal exhibition “Oliviero Toscani. Più di 50 anni di magnifici fallimenti [More than 50 years of magnificent failures]” at Whitelight Art Gallery in Milan, a specific area was dedicated to the project “Razza Umana [Human Race],” which started in 2007: Toscani shot 40 portraits of  individuals, offering a kind of eye-camera dialog moment, also sharing the photos with an autograph.

“The photo tells a story, and reveals what you can’t understand about these people,” said Toscani at the time. “My goal is the research of an individual story. Photos with top models are appreciated because they’re empty, so perfect. The aesthetics is mediocrity.”