Massimiliano Toscanelli is one of the icons of fashion photography. Famous for his unique view on photography, and especially portrait photography, he is admired not only by the people in the fashion industry, but a wider, more mainstream audience.
He was born in Ravenna and studied at the University of Bologna, but he dropped out after two years to pursue a career in photography and moved to Milan. No friends, no academic background and little money didn’t stop him from trying to break through as a professional photographer.
Right after he moved to Milan, he met Lucia, a young woman who was also looking to get into the fashion industry, but as a model. Together, they start working towards their mutual goal, but with little success. They were almost ready to give up when they received a phone call that would change their lives forever. Massimiliano got a job as a photographer in a modeling agency.
This event puts his entire career into motion and he is quickly branded as a raising star of the fashion industry. He gets the opportunity to be a runway photographer after just a year at the job which puts him in the spotlight of the fashion photography clique.
What sets him apart from the start is his unique view on what a job of a photographer is. He believes that it is his mission to transfer the designer’s idea and the model’s interpretation of it to a wider audience. This is why he always works closely with designers, models, make-up artists and scenographers and why his photos have been on the covers of almost all fashion magazines in the world.