Oliviero Toscani

Oliviero Toscani (28 February 1942 – 13 January 2025) was an Italian photographer, best-known worldwide for designing controversial advertising campaigns for Italian brand Benetton from 1982 to 2000.

Early life and career

Toscani was born in Milan, and took up photography following in the footsteps of his father, Fedele Toscani, famous Italian photographer, founder with Vincenzo Carrese of the Publifoto photographic agency, then of his own photographic agency (Rotofoto), then photo reporter for the newspaper Corriere della Sera. After obtaining his diploma at the Kunstgewerbeschule Zürich, he started working with different magazines, including Elle, Vogue, L'Uomo Vogue and Harper's Bazaar.

Career

In 1982, Toscani started working as Art Director for the Benetton Group. One of his most famous campaigns included a photo (by Therese Frare) of David Kirby dying of AIDS, lying in a Columbus, Ohio, hospital bed, surrounded by his grieving relatives. The picture was controversial due to its similarity to a pietà painting and because critics of the ad thought the use of this image to sell clothing was exploiting the victim, though the Kirby family stated that they authorized the use and that it helped increase AIDS awareness. Other advertisements included references to racism (notably one with three almost identical human hearts, which were actually pig hearts, with the words 'white', 'black', and 'yellow' as captions), war, religion and even capital punishment.