Modena, August 29, 2026 – Franco Fontana has passed away. The renowned photographer died this morning at his home. He was 92 years old.
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He was one of the greatest Italian photographers of the second half of the twentieth century and was known as the master of color. He was born in 1933 in Cognento, near Modena, and began photographing in the early Sixties.
“I was born in Modena on December 9, and it was a Saturday even then – Fontana recalled 2 years ago, on the occasion of the celebration of his 90th birthday, promoted by the Modena Visual Arts Foundation at the former Sant’Agostino hospital –. And I have never left Modena. I have been all over the world, but what matters is what you carry inside.”
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His extraordinary career professionally began already at the end of the 1960s and unfolded in more than 400 exhibitions and at least 60 books: his photographs have entered the collections of the major international museums and are exhibited around the world, as well as appearing in the most prestigious magazines.
Farewell to the master of color
Fontana almost never photographed in black and white, because it is not real and in reality only color exists or is true, he said. “My photography has never been illustration, but interpretation,” he said. And the photo is born in the mind, before the lens. The camera is just a tool, like a pen for a writer: “When I started, there were very few of us working with color. You may like it or not, but it is my identity,” he maintained.
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And with that color, Fontana characterized his landscapes, which became iconic.
