Friend. Mentor. Legend. Italian photographer (and executive producer of our “Journey to Italy”) Tony Patrioli left us, after a long illness. His latest photobook, RAGAZZI DEL MEDITERRANEO, published by Bruno Gmuender, is due out in November and can be pre-ordered at Amazon

“There is a time and place for everything”, writes Gmuender. “Tony Patrioli’s time were the 60s to 80s of the 20th century and his place was Italy. During his carreer as a photographer, he captured something long lost in todays society: young men from the Mediterranean sea, mostly heterosexual, who were comfortable in their bodies and willing to show the world – even in poses that can be seen as arousing and homoerotic. Tony Patrioli cultivated nude art, obviously inspired by the photography of Wilhelm von Gloeden, a 19th century German photographer who is mostly known for his pastoral nude studies of Sicilian boys. Asked why Gloeden had such an impact on him, Patrioli answers: “Because Gloeden was the only male nude photographer that was not banned in Italy at the time and because his imagination in part coincided with mine. The American bodybuilders photos seemed to me too far away from the world and from the guys I saw around me.“  Ciao, Tony