Bio
Riccardo Venturi was born in Rome, in august 1966.
He became a photo reporter in 1988 for national inquiries.
Many Italian newspapers and magazines used his picture of one of his early work, the scandal for the re-building of the areas struck by a huge earthquake in Irpinia, in southern Italy.
In the '90s he published for international press pictures from Albania after the fall of the communist dictatorship and also of the new naziskin wave in Germany. In 1997 he won the World Press Photo for his pictures during the war in Afghanistan and made a book out of it. In 1999 he deserved the Leica Honarable Mention for the Kosovo crisis. He travels all around the world, mostly in Africa and in fields of war.
He was in Sri Lanka and Indonesia destroyed by the power of the Tsunami, and in 2004 in Iran devastated by an earthquake. He joined other photo reporters at "Contrasto" for the "Beijing In & Out" project, shown in Milan for the Triennale in 2007. In 2008 he won Premio Lucchetta for Best photography of tuberculosis in the world.
In 2008 he showed his pictures and a book of workplace deaths in an exhibition at the Italian Parliament.
Venturi works as a photographer for "Contrasto" since 2001 and has collaborated with many humanitarian organizations like UNICEF, United Nations High Commision for Refugees, World Health Organization, United Nations Comitee for children in armed conflict, European Commision for Humanitarian Organization, Medicens Sans Frontier, Ecpat International, Intersos Humanitarian Organization, Movimondo, Coopi, Emergency.
His remarkable books are "Sette minuti", Silavana Editore, 2000; "Afghanistan il nodo del tempo", Contrasto editore, 2004; NO ! " Contro il dramma degli incidenti sul lavoro" 2008.