Born in 1948 in Varese to parents from Gela, Giovanni Chiaramonte began photographing in the late 1960s, working toward a revival of the figurative form following the great abstract and informal phase of certain trends within Pop Art and Conceptual Art.
Chiaramonte’s imagery has been shaped from the outset by the theological and aesthetic tradition of H.U. Von Balthasar and the Eastern Church, encountered through figures such as P. Evdokimov, O. Clement, and A. Tarkovsky. His main theme is the relationship between place and destiny within Western civilization.
He founded and directed photography series for Jaca Book (1980–89), Federico Motta Editore (1990–93), S.E.I. (1994), Edizioni della Meridiana (1998–2005), and Ultreya (2005–2017).
For his two-decade collaboration with magazines (Lotus, Domus, Casabella, Abitare) and national and international institutions (IBA Berlin, Triennale di Milano, Venice Biennale, CCA Montréal), the University of Palermo awarded him an honorary degree in Architecture on October 25, 2005. In 2006, Professor Italo Zannier awarded him the Friuli-Venezia Giulia Prize for Photography. In 2010, he participated in the Shanghai Expo with Hidden in Perspective.
After founding the publishing cooperative “Punto e Virgola” with Luigi Ghirri in 1978, he directed the eponymous series for Jaca Book from 1980 to 1989. In 1990, he founded and directed the photography series at Federico Motta Editore until 1993. In 1994, he launched and directed the photography collections of SEI in Turin. In 2002, he created the photography series for Edizioni della Meridiana in Florence, and in 2007 for Itaca/Ultreya. To date, more than 100 volumes have been published.
