The death of Oliviero Toscani, the famous and controversial Benetton photographer

His photos went around the world to promote the colorful Italian clothing brand Benetton. On January 13, 2025, he passed away: Oliviero Toscani.

Image: the photographer during a Benetton advertising campaign in 1982.

In a brief and painful press release, Oliviero Toscani's family announced the death of the famous photographer. He would have turned 83 on February 28.

Last summer, Oliviero Toscani revealed in an interview with Corriere della Sera that he was seriously ill: "I have lived too long and well. I have been lucky... now I don't know how much time I have left."

The famous Milanese photographer suffered from amyloidosis, a rare disease that caused him to lose 40 kilos in just one year. On Friday, January 10, 2025, he was admitted to the intensive care unit of the hospital in Cecina (Livorno). During his hospitalization, doctors discovered that the disease had affected several vital organs.

Son of Fedele Toscani, one of the most important photojournalists of Corriere della Sera, Oliviero Toscani published his first photo in the famous newspaper at the age of 14. It captured the suffering face of Rachele Mussolini during the burial of Benito Mussolini in Predappio.

Pictured here with Marvin Traub and Douglas Tompkins for Bloomingdale's advertising campaign.

After studying photography at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Zurich, Toscani began collaborating with the most prestigious fashion magazines, including Vogue and Elle, compiling, year after year, advertising campaigns of enormous impact and success.

In the photo: campaign for Vogue, 1977.

His iconic campaigns for United Colors of Benetton, a company he worked with from 1982 to 2000, helped to create the brand's image and identity. They were colorful and iconic. The photographer was ahead of his time, implementing effective communication strategies about equality and integration, peace, and even AIDS and the death penalty.

In the photo: Oliviero Toscani during a Benetton advertising campaign in 1982.

Among the most controversial shots at the time were the pictures of people sentenced to death in the United States. Others were Toscani's images for the campaign against anorexia with the French model Isabelle Caro (in the photo) as the protagonist.

The Benetton Group wpaid tribute to his immense work by publishing one of his most iconic photographs on its Instagram channel: "In order to explain certain things, words simply don't suffice. You taught us that. And with that said, we’d like to pay tribute to you with a photo that you took for us many years ago, in 1989. Farewell Oliviero. Keep on dreaming."

Credit: Benetton / Instagram

Among the highlights of his career were his participation in the Venice Biennale in 1993 and his award of the UNESCO Grand Prix. Not to mention that Toscani has photographed some of the most important faces of all time, such as Fidel Castro, the Beatles, Naomi Campbell, and David Bowie, among others.

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