Giuseppe Loy was born in Cagliari on March 26, 1928 to Anna Sanjust and Guglielmo Loy Donà. He is the last of three brothers: Maria Luisa and Giovanni (known as Nanni).

 

In 1938 he settled with his family in Rome.

After a law degree he works as a clerk in a fabric shop and sells books in installments on behalf of Einaudi.

In 1954 he married Rosetta Provera (in the future the writer Rosetta Loy).

From 1953 to 1957, thanks also to the support of his brother Nanni, he worked in the cinema as an editor and production manager (among others "Vergine Moderna", 1954, by Marcello Pagliero, "Tam Tam Mayumbe", 1955, by Gian Gaspare Napolitano and Folco Lulli, "War and Peace", 1956, by King Vidor, "The Great Blue Road", 1957, by Gillo Pontecorvo, "Word of Thief", 1957, by Nanni Loy and Gianni Puccini); his is the subject of "Happy People" (by Mino Loy, 1957) and his will be the poems recited by the protagonist of "Love or Something of the Kind" (by Dino B. Partesano, 1968).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 1957 he began working as an executive in the construction company founded by Rosetta's father. At the same time it carries out two non-profit activities: poetry and photography. The second will be a real obsession. It can be said that for about thirty years the camera and man have been inseparable. He used almost exclusively Leica devices equipped with 35, 50, 90, 180mm optics.

He has repeatedly published his poems in the Quarterly Review directed by Franco Rodano.

In 1968 he joined the Communist Party and began a political activity that would accompany him throughout his life (first in the section of Ponte Milvio, then at the Flaminio).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Giuseppe Loy died of a heart attack in Rome on 5 October 1981, leaving more than 70,000 shots, a book of poems and four children: Anna, Benedetta, Margherita and Angelo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some of his black and white photographs appeared in 1965 in Rome at the Einaudi bookshop and in 1977 in the “Other images” space of the Politecnico in via Tiepolo. His images have been hosted in two specialized magazines: Foto magazin n.1, January 1966 and Le Nouveau Photocinéma, n.13 May 1973. In 1979 he held an exhibition of color photographs at the Roman gallery “Il Segno”.

 

Before his death he was working on a project for a book of photographs that should have been called “A certain Italy” for the Grandi Libri Laterza series, as well as a collection of aphorisms, entitled “Le Nick, Azur Plastique”.

 

After his death, his photographs have been the subject of exhibitions: at the Galleria Il Segno (Rome) in 1983 and 2004, at the Sulcis gallery (Cagliari) in 2014, within the exhibition "Objectives on Burri", Città di Castello 2019 and in "Fuori le Zero" at the Corsetti Photo Gallery (2019).

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