Ferdinando Scianna, Sicilia, Porticello, 1988. Ferdinando Scianna was the first Italian photographer to join the prestigious Magnum Agency. Digital print on 10" x 7.5" glossy photo paper from the Magnum Photos archive. Ferdinando Scianna © Magnum Photos in lower right corner. Fine condition (with small imperfections). Ferdinando Scianna started taking photographs in the 1960s while studying literature, philosophy and art history at the University of Palermo. It was then that he began to photograph the Sicilian people systematically. Feste Religiose in Sicilia (1965) included an essay by the Sicilian writer Leonardo Sciascia, and it was the first of many collaborations with famous writers. In 1977 he published Les Siciliens in France and La Villa Dei Mostri in Italy. During this period, Scianna met Henri Cartier-Bresson, and in 1982 he joined Magnum Photos. He entered the field of fashion photography in the late 1980s and at the end of the decade he published a retrospective, Le Forme del Caos (1989). One of the best Italian photographers along with Gianni Berengo Gardin, Piergiorgio Branzi, Mimmo Jodice, Mario Dondero, Mario Giacomelli, Luigi Ghirri, Oliviero Toscani, Ugo Mulas, Franco Fontana, Gabriele Basilico, Letizia Battaglia, Tina Modotti, Paolo Pellegrín, among many others.