MANUEL CICCHETTI (1969-2026)

Manuel Cicchetti built his artistic career in the 1990s across music, theatre and the visual arts. He created album covers for BMG, EMI and CNI, and worked as a production photographer for major theatres and music companies, including the Teatro Regio in Turin, I Pomeriggi Musicali and Compagnia dell’Opera Buffa.

In 1999, he directed his first theatrical production for Cantieri Internazionali d’Arte di Montepulciano, On the High Wire by Philippe Petit, also designing the set. In 2001, in Milan, he staged Orfeo a fumetti as part of the Suoni e Visioni festival, inspired by the texts and illustrations of Dino Buzzati, with music by Filippo Del Corno. Around the same time, he founded Officium, a company specialised in the production of cultural events, collaborating on projects such as Milan’s Festa della Musica, Peter Gabriel’s WOMAD and the opening ceremony of the Sestriere Ski World Championships.

Between 2000 and 2015, he worked for renowned international companies such as J. Walter Thompson, Fullsix, Reply, Weber Shandwick, Hill+Knowlton and Young & Rubicam, covering roles ranging from creative consultant to artistic director.

In 2016, profound personal changes led him to dedicate himself entirely to photography, pursuing research into landscapes and places as repositories of memory, transformation and contemporary cultural identity. His work explores reality in all its complexity, alternating between black and white, colour and medium-format film photography.

Over the course of his career, he published four photography books: Monocrome (Touring Club Italiano, 2018), a homage to the contemplative silence of the Dolomites; Vaia. Viaggio consapevole dentro un disastro (The Music Company, 2020), an account of the destruction left behind by Storm Vaia; Tempo Intermedio (Postcart, 2022), an exploration of contemporary Italy and its suspended landscapes; and Dolomiti. Un paesaggio tutelato (Marsilio Arte, 2025), created with writer Antonio G. Bortoluzzi.

Cicchetti’s work has been exhibited at major Italian institutions, including the Milan Natural History Museum, Palazzo Ducale in Genoa, the Museo Rimoldi in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Palazzo Bembo in Belluno, Le Stanze della Fotografia in Venice, and as part of the Bergamo Brescia Italian Capital of Culture 2024 programme.

In 2024, he returned to directing with Forest, an interdisciplinary performance blending photography, music, dance and theatre into an immersive exploration of the relationship between humanity and nature. The production featured Susanna Beltrami (DanceHaus), Giuliano Vozella, Angelo Miotto and Salvatore Lazzaro.

The same year also marked the beginning of his collaboration with BenEssere and Famiglia Cristiana, producing editorial portraits and photographic projects.

His work is now at the centre of an extensive exhibition programme across Italy and Europe.

In June 2026, the European Parliament in Brussels hosted the exhibition of his latest project, Continental Notebooks, created with journalist Angelo Miotto in collaboration with Corriere della Sera and Marsilio Arte. The project was the result of a journey of more than 50,000 kilometres across Europe, aimed at creating a new European atlas through photography and personal testimonies—a portrait of the peoples, landscapes and identities that continue to unite the continent despite its borders and contemporary fractures.

Exhibitions

  • Monocrome. Camminando tra le Dolomiti d’Ampezzo, Museo Arte Moderna Mario Rimoldi, Cortina d’Ampezzo, 2019
  • Monocrome. Camminando tra le Dolomiti d’Ampezzo, Museo Paleontologico Rinaldo Zardini, Cortina d’Ampezzo, 2019
  • Monocrome. Camminando tra le Dolomiti d’Ampezzo, Palazzo Crepadona, Belluno, 2019
  • Vaia. Viaggio consapevole dentro un disastro, Museo di Storia Naturale, Milan, 2021
  • Vaia. Viaggio consapevole dentro un disastro, Palazzo Ducale – Fondazione per la Cultura, Genoa, 2021
  • Vaia. Viaggio consapevole dentro un disastro, widespread exhibition, Palue, Sottoguda and Rocca Pietore (Belluno), 2021
  • Tempo Intermedio, Fondazione Archivio Lorenzo Ferrero, Turin, 2022
  • Tempo Intermedio, Collettivo TIFF, Piacenza, 2022
  • Tempo Intermedio, Galleria Hoepli, Milan, 2022
  • Tempo Intermedio, Still Fotografia, Milan, 2023
  • Vaia – Tempo Intermedio, Bergamo Brescia Italian Capital of Culture, Bergamo, 2023
  • Dolomiti. Un paesaggio tutelato, widespread exhibition, Cortina d’Ampezzo, 2025
  • Dolomiti. Un paesaggio tutelato, Palazzo Bembo, Belluno, 2025
  • Dolomiti. Un paesaggio tutelato, Le Stanze della Fotografia, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice, 2025
  • Dolomiti. Un paesaggio tutelato, widespread exhibition, Longarone, Belluno, 2026

Publications

  • Monocrome. Camminando tra le Dolomiti d’Ampezzo, Touring Club Italiano, 2018
  • Vaia. Viaggio consapevole dentro un disastro, The Music Company, 2021
  • Tempo Intermedio, PostCart, 2022
  • Dolomiti. Un paesaggio tutelato, Marsilio Arte, 2025