Mario Tursi

Mario Tursi, born into a family of photographers, began as a photojournalist for important agencies and newspapers of the post-war period. As a photojournalist, he also followed the making of some films and created specials for American film productions, but it was only in 1962 that he made his debut as a set photographer on “Mare Matto” by Renato Castellani. He continued in 1964 with “Vaghe stelle dell’Orsa” by Luchino Visconti and thus began one of the longest and most important partnerships of his career: he would follow Visconti in all his films, with very few exceptions. An invisible eye, parallel and alternative to that of the camera, he was able to capture the most intimate, magical and spontaneous moments of directors and actors, highlighting the salient moments of a scene or the pauses on the set, before and after the clapperboard. He worked with Pier Paolo Pasolini, Lina Wertmüller, Bernardo Bertolucci, Liliana Cavani, Francesco Rosi, Elio Petri, Alberto Lattuada, Ettore Scola but also with Jean-Paul Rappeneau and Luis Buñuel, up to the collaboration with Martin Scorsese in the film shot in Cinecittà "Gangs of N.Y.".

"Before, the term scene photographers consisted of taking photographs that reflected what was being shot. Also because the film was sold with those photographs. Now the scene photographer has other tasks, that of advertising the film in all its facets. So much so that it should no longer even be called a scene photographer, but a photographer who is on stage."