Antonio Martinelli is a French-Italian photographer born on 30 September 1953 in Venice, Italy. He currently lives in Paris. Biography Venetian photographer and architect by training, Antonio Martinelli graduated from Università Iuav di Venezia (Istituto Universitario di Architettura Venezia). Established in Paris since the late 1980s, he has earned an international reputation for his long and extensive photographic experience in the fields of architecture and heritage. From an early age he frequented the Venice Circolo Fotografico La Gondola. During his Venetian years, he became friend with Hugo Pratt for whom he made the introductory photographs of the book: Corto Maltese - Fable de Venise. In 1979, Domus magazine commissioned the photographer to report on the construction and installation of the Teatro del Mondo in Venice, a work by architect Aldo Rossi sponsored by the Venice Biennale. Antonio Martinelli followed the evolution of the work, from the laying of the structure's first pole on the barge to the introduction into the waters of the Teatro, through to the maiden voyage in the mist of the Venetian lagoon towards the Punta della Dogana, at the entrance of the Grand Canal. After that, he accompanied the Teatro on his journey to the Adriatic Sea until Dubrovnik. The collaboration with Domus and the Biennale opened for Martinelli the doors of the Venice Arsenal, for a work documenting the first exhibition of the Venice Biennale of Architecture: La Strada Novissima, installed in 1980 in the long Corderie building. The first photographer to have documented the Arsenal interiors, he continued this exploration for the book of Giorgio Bellavitis L’Arsenale di Venezia Storia di una grande struttura urbana (Marsilio Edition, 1983). His friendship with Aldo Rossi and other renowned architects and historians, among which Francesco Dal Co, Manfredo Tafuri, Mario Botta, Jean-Louis Cohen, Claude Vasconi, Henri Gaudin, Massimiliano Fuksas and Peter Zumthor, led to other collaborations and projects on Venice, Italy, France and Japan. In 1972, Martinelli set out to discover the Indian subcontinent. This trip marked the beginning of a long and passionate frequentation of India that resulted in multiple photographic projects for many publications and exhibitions throughout Europe, in New York and in India. The photographer's interest for architecture and landscapes also led him to work for the Italian Touring Club and the publisher Franco Maria Ricci (FMR and AD Architectural Digest). From 1980, he began his collaboration with Japanese architecture magazine A + U