Luigia Lollobrigida 1927-2023

Signora Luigia Lollobrigida, known as Gina Lollobrigida, became famous through her films and is still considered one of the essential divas; hers is the star number 2628 among those on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

In the 1990s she fully resumed her activity as a sculptor, which she had neglected for the cinema. She modeled more than sixty sculptures, some of which in marble and some of large dimensions.

Gina has always gone where her heart took her; as a girl, she followed her passion by enrolling at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, and to pay for her studies, she made charcoal caricatures on the Spanish Steps.

She was an accomplished photographer and a book of her work called Italia Mia was published in 1974.

Between 1972 and 1994 she published six more books, The Philippines, and the Wonder of Innocence, photographs of and for childrenn and others.

Most interesting are the photos relating to cinema, which includes nothing short of wonderful photos, such as the splendid close-up, rigorously in black and white, of Paul Newman, or the photo of Yul Brinner, with whom she was bound by deep affection.

Leafing through the pages ofther books is a journey with Gina around the world, from the golden world of cinema, to the poverty of some Asian countries such as India, the Philippines, and Kenya. The exciting part is reading between the pages the circumstances that led to a shot, as well as, in the final piece, seeing the first photomontages conceived and created by her when Photoshop was not yet within reach.