Alfa Castaldi has been a key figure of italian photography from the early ‘50s till his death in 1995.
Starting as a news photoreporter in the Milan literary scene based at the famous Bar Jamaica with Ugo Mulas and Mario Dondero, he produced a number of photo essays on cultural, artistic and social events for the major magazines of the time.
In the late ‘60s he opened a studio to work on portraits, still life and fashion in association with his wife Anna Piaggi. His range of collaborations spanned from the main italian fashion magazines to weekly news magazines until Condè Nast opened the italian Vogue edition in 1969 of which Alfa became a regular contributor.
He has published two books on the italian fashion scene: “Mass moda” with Adriana Mulassano in 1979 and “L’Italia della Moda” with Silvia Giacomoni in 1984.
All through his career Alfa has worked on personal researches such as “Compagnia di Stile Popolare” (a collection of portraits of shepherds and artisans in different regions of Italy, a research on the roots of italian menswear style), a long study on cubist photography, an intensive reportage about stencils on the walls of Paris during the ‘80s, hundreds of photographs of monumental graves in Milan and a huge number of personal observations and street photography.
Aparts from “Compagnia di Stile Popolare” these researches are still basically unpublished.
Archivio Alfa Castaldi
Paolo Castaldi
[email protected]
+39 335 6063764
