Judge 2010
Giovanna Calvenzi
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY, SPORTWEEK MAGAZINE / GAZETTA DELLA SPORT (ITALY)
Currently director of photography in Sportweek magazine and Gazzetta della Sport, Giovanna Calvenzi is a prominent name in European photography.
After studying literature at the University of Milan, Giovanna begun her photography career by assisting the well-known Italian photo-journalist Federico Patellani before becoming a photography lecturer at the University of Milan.
After contributing to various periodicals (Capital, Amica, Domus, Interni, Photo Italia, Linea Grafica), her career crossed-over into media when she became the picture editor at AMICA, a weekly fashion magazine, in 1985 which led to her also working for renowned Italian publications such as Corriere della Sera, Vanity Fair, MODA and la Stampa.
She is also a member of the Droit de Regard, an association for the protection and promotion of authorship in press photography and has a distinguished career as a curator and academic. After being director of the Arles Photography Festival in 1998, she was a committee member of the National d’Art Contemporain between 1999 and 2002 and was also a guest curator at the Photo Espańa festival in Madrid. She has also published her academic work prolifically since 1984 and co-edited "Italia: Portrait of a Nation" which presents a passionate and comprehensive visual tale of Italy after 1945. Giovanna was also a judge at the World Press Photo Awards for ten consecutive years between 1995 and 2005.
What does she love about photography? "I love its history and the latest tendencies. I love its capability to tell us stories, to show us faces, to interpret the world and reality and to transform them into art. As for what makes a great photo? There are no rules."
Despite such a distinguished career in photography, her daily routine is typical of a picture editor. "I switch on the computer, the phone rings, my editor in chief asks for something. I make appointments with new and old photographers. Then I am at the computer again and have many emails to write and to answer. I have to find time then to chat with the art director. Over the day, I see a lot of photographs - for “a lot” I mean really a lot! I normally finish at 8pm."
Giovanna is hopeful that the standard of photography for Red Bull Illume 2010 will match the "great quality of the photographs of the 2007 contest."
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