Mimmo Jodice

Mimmo Jodice was a leading figure in Naples’ artistic and cultural scene, engaging in dialogue with some of the most influential personalities of the Italian and international avant-garde.

Discover the life, most iconic photographs, and must-see exhibitions of photographer Mimmo Jodice.

Mimmo Jodice was born in the Rione Sanità neighbourhood of Naples in 1934. He taught himself to draw and paint, before discovering photography, which soon became his primary means of expression, in the 1960s. After winning a national competition in 1967, he gave up his job to pursue photography full-time. He held his first solo exhibition in Naples and quickly became a leading figure on the city's artistic and cultural scene, engaging with key figures of the Italian and international avant-garde.

He became holder of the first chair in Photography in Italy in 1970, at the Academy of Fine Arts in Naples, and has since combined teaching activities with personal research and editorial collaborations. He has published books documenting both the social fabric of Southern Italy and the transformations of its urban and rural landscapes, such as “Chi è devoto”, “Mezzogiorno: questione aperta” and “Vedute di Napoli”, followed by numerous volumes dedicated to towns and cities, particular places and cultural themes (Gibellina, Paestum, Naples, Arles, the Mediterranean, Paris, Boston, São Paulo, Moscow and Montreal).

From the 1980s and 1990s onwards, Jodice exhibited at major international museums and institutions, including SFMOMA in San Francisco, Federal Hall in New York, the Maison Européenne de la Photographie and the Louvre in Paris, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Castello di Rivoli, MASP in São Paulo, MART in Trento and Rovereto, the Museo di Capodimonte, the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome, and the McCord Stewart Museum in Montreal. He also took part in significant collective projects such as Viaggio in Italia and worked closely with the world of architecture, collaborating with internationally renowned architects.

From 29 June 2023 to 7 January 2024, Gallerie d'Italia in Turin presented the exhibition Mimmo Jodice. Senza tempo (Timeless). The exhibition was part of La Grande Fotografia Italiana, a project curated by Roberto Koch that began in 2022 with Lisetta Carmi’s exhibition Playing Loud and continued with Antonio Biasiucci’s Arca in 2024 and Olivo Barbieri’s Spazi altri (Other Spaces) in 2025.

Throughout his career, Jodice has received numerous prestigious honours and distinctions, including a monographic volume in the I Grandi Fotografi series, inclusion in the Treccani Encyclopedia, and the Antonio Feltrinelli Prize awarded by the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, becoming the first photographer ever to receive this distinction. He has also been the subject of several major anthological and retrospective exhibitions, was named a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters in France, and received honorary degrees in Architecture from the University of Naples Federico II and the University of Mendrisio, as well as an honorary degree from the Academy of Fine Arts of Macerata.

In 2014, the Museo Madre in Naples awarded him its first-ever Matronato alla Carriera (Lifetime Achievement Matronage). Characterised by a rigorous yet poetic visual language that combines formal innovation with classical sensibility, Jodice’s work has established him as a key point of reference for new generations of photographers and for the international contemporary photography scene.