Fabrizio Ferri

Vogue Girl · June 12, 2018

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Fabrizio Ferri began his career as a photojournalist in 1970 at the age of seventeen, taking photographs of Italy’s political life. He then shifted his attention to the fashion world, and moved temporarily to London in 1974 and to New York a year later. He soon became one of the most sought-after photographers, working for top fashion magazines as Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Marie Claire, Elle, Vanity Fair, Interview, GQ and Esquire.

Acclaimed internationally for his sophisticated yet pure vision, Ferri has photographed many iconic portraits of the last decades. He has captured Isabella Rossellini, Elettra Rossellini, Sophia Loren, Luciano Pavarotti, Sting, Madonna, Roland Petit, Monica Bellucci, Naomi Campbell, Julia Roberts, Charlize Theron, Beyoncé, Susan Sarandon, Jessica Lange, and Willem Dafoe among many others. Ferri has also authored campaigns for leading luxury brands and corporations, such as Bulgari, Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana, Ferragamo, as well as McDonald’s, L’Oreal and Lancôme.

Ferri’s photographic essays have been published in several books: Open Eyed (1989), Acqua (1993), Aria(1996). In 2004 he presented in Rome Forma I - II (Design and Architecture Nudes), an exhibition and two books showcasing his photographs of Italian rationalist architecture and design. In 2005 he published Fontane Romane. In 2015, Ferri published four new books: American Ballet Theatre: 75th Anniversary, One of 100, Roberto Bolle: Voyage into Beauty and Stop Think Give, which features over 200 celebrities and helped the public charity Save the Children raise 30 million dollars worldwide.

As a cinematographer and director, Ferri filmed two award winning films, Prelude (1997) and Carmen (1998), as well as Acqua (1993), Aria (1996), Passage (2013), and Rethink Energy (2014).

For his pragmatic creativeness and comprehensive world view, Fabrizio Ferri embodies the contemporary prototype of the “Renaissance Man”. As a young enterpreneur, he founded Industria Superstudio in Milan in 1983, and later opened its New York City outpost in 1991. With multifunctional studios and musical and digital research departments, Industria is the first full-service photographic complex of its kind. Industria is also the name of Ferri’s fashion label, produced and distributed until 1998, and the name of an airline, Air Industria, active in Italy in 2001. In 1997, in Milan he founded “L’Università dell’Immagine” (University for the Image), the first institute with a curriculum focused on synesthetics and the creative process.

A refined composer, he conceived and wrote the script and the music for Anima, a contemporary opera with a photographic set designed by Ferri himself. It premiered at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples in 2010. He also authored the score for Passage, his short film screened at the Venice International Film Festival in 2013, which was adapted into a live performance for the show Roberto Bolle and Friends at the Arena di Verona in 2014. Ferri also composed part of the music for The Piano Upstairs, a dance and theater show that premiered at the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto in 2013. As a writer, he wrote the short novel Discrete Adventures of Vito Zuccheretti, An Ordinary Man, published in 1992.

Born in Rome in 1952, he lived in Milan for several years. Ferri currently lives and works in New York City.