Toscani led several famous and controversial campaigns for the clothing company Benetton.
At the age of 82, the well-known Italian photographer Oliviero Toscani, best known for his “provocative” advertisements for the clothing company Benetton, died. His family reported his death on Monday. Toscani suffered from a rare disease – amyloidosis, writes TASR according to reports from the ANSA and DPA agencies.
ANSA reported on Friday that Toscani was hospitalized in the city of Cecina and described his condition as serious. The photographer subsequently lost consciousness on Saturday.
Toscani announced in August that two years ago he was diagnosed with the incurable disease amyloidosis, which leads to the accumulation of amyloid proteins in organs and disrupts their function. In an interview with the newspaper Corriere della Sera, he said that due to the difficulties associated with the disease, which caused him to lose 40 kilograms, he considered taking his own life.
“His genius will continue to inspire us,” the president of the Tuscany region, Eugenio Giani, said on social media.
Controversial campaigns
Toscani led several famous and controversial campaigns for the Benetton clothing company in the 1980s and 1990s, writes DPA. His advertising work included a photograph of a man dying of AIDS, a nun and priest kissing, an emaciated woman suffering from anorexia, and also a series of portraits of American death row inmates.
According to AFP, Toscani drew attention to social issues such as AIDS, the death penalty and mafia murders in his work. Among his most controversial works, according to AFP, is the aforementioned photograph of a man dying of AIDS, which sparked opposition from activists and a boycott of Benetton. However, Toscani defended his work and stated in a 2016 interview that the company has an obligation to “demonstrate its social intelligence and sensitivity towards the society that surrounds it”.
Benetton ended its collaboration with Toscani in 2020 after, according to DPA, it was indifferent to the collapse of a bridge in the city of Genoa that killed 43 people in 2018.
