My Life in Focus: A Photographer’s Journey with Elizabeth Taylor and the Hollywood Jet Set

313 Pages·2016·51.53 MB·English

by  Gianni Bozzacchi, Joey Tayler

My Life in Focus

My Life in Focus
A Photographer’s Journey
with Elizabeth Taylor and
the Hollywood Jet Set
Gianni Bozzacchi
With Joey tayLer
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copyright © 2017 by The University Press of Kentucky
Scholarly publisher for the commonwealth,
serving Bellarmine University, Berea college, centre college of Kentucky,
eastern Kentucky University, The Filson historical Society, Georgetown college,
Kentucky historical Society, Kentucky State University, Morehead State
University, Murray State University, northern Kentucky University, transylvania
University, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, and Western
Kentucky University.
all rights reserved.
Editorial and Sales Offices: The University Press of Kentucky
663 South Limestone Street, Lexington, Kentucky 40508-4008
www.kentuckypress.com
cataloging-in-Publication data is available from the Library of congress.
iSBn 978-0-8131-6874-6 (hardcover : alk. paper)
iSBn 978-0-8131-6885-2 (epub)
iSBn 978-0-8131-6886-9 (pdf)
This book is printed on acid-free paper meeting
the requirements of the american national Standard
for Permanence in Paper for Printed Library Materials.
Manufactured in the United States of america.
Member of the association of
american University Presses
Contents
Foreword by elizabeth taylor vii
Prologue 1
introduction 3
1. War, hunger, and the art of Getting By 7
2. a roman rebel without a cause 27
3. after the neorealism 39
4. Jet-Set Jungle 55
5. introverted in america 77
6. “The new King of the camera” 99
7. Black and White in color 115
8. Success, italian Style 143
9. The artist in Me 163
10. Without My Father 187
11. another Funeral 215
12. cinderella and Me 237
13. Daddy 257
14. Breaking Up 267
epilogue 279
index 291
elizabeth taylor on the cover
of my first book, The Queen and I.
Foreword
Elizabeth Taylor
in 2001, my dear friend Gianni Bozzacchi asked me to write a blurb for a
book he was publishing, The Queen and I, a lovely collection of photo-
graphs and stories from the twelve years Gianni spent working with me
and richard Burton. reading the galleys brought back so many wonderful
memories of that time, the so-called jet-set era: the glamour, the creativity,
the incredible people i spent my life with, people like Gianni. you’d never
know it looking at the exquisite pictures he took, but the Gianni i remem-
bered, and the Gianni i was getting reacquainted with through his book,
always felt a little like he was outside the party looking in.
reflecting on that time and those pictures now, i could see that
Gianni’s insecurities, whether warranted or not, were inseparable from his
photographer’s eye. By maintaining a certain distance from his own life,
and from mine, Gianni found the perspective that made him such an
indelible artist. oh, sure, Gianni enjoyed the glitz, the excitement, the
beauty, the allure of that life, but he was never impressed by it, and he
never surrendered to it, as so many people did. Gianni, uniquely among
his peers, photographed his subjects as people rather than as stars. he had
a remarkable gift for seeing past the bright lights, for snapping us when
our guard was down, when we were simply and beautifully ourselves.
By the end of The Queen and I, i had remembered not just how special
Gianni’s talent was but how thoroughly annoying it could be, especially to
someone whose image was, for better or worse, reproduced and analyzed
and debated on every newsstand in the world back then. So i wrote my
blurb and sent it to Gianni: “Brilliant, sensitive, Gianni always catches the
soul. he is a pain in the ass.”
as soon as i’d sent that note i felt bad, and i deleted the last sentence
This is the dedication that elizabeth wrote on the first copy of the book.
Foreword
before the book went to press. But Gianni was disappointed—he’d loved
what i wrote.
Well, now i’ve read My Life in Focus, a book filled with even more
stunning pictures, more fascinating, funny stories, more of the man and
his work—which, of course, means more of me, too, and the countless
celebrities who found themselves in Gianni’s sights over the years.
So now i am finally ready to tell the world what Gianni wanted me to
say all those years ago: Gianni, you are a pain in the ass. i love you and
thank you for it, and i’m sure everyone who reads this wonderful book will
too. i love you lots!
Elizabeth Taylor sent me this foreword in January 2011, prior to the publica-
tion of the first Italian edition. She passed away on March 23.
ix