LUNCHEON LECTURE with PRISCILLA RATTAZZI

PRISCILLA RATTAZZI is a photographer, writer/storyteller, and environmentalist, who emigrated from Italy in the 1970’s. The youngest daughter of Susanna Agnelli, a best-selling author and politician who became the first female foreign minister of Italy, she was raised in a home of great privilege. Her mother instilled in her not only a passion for the environment, but the need to share that passion with others through art.  PRISCILLA'S PLANET will focus on Ms. Rattazzi's life and art and will include questions from the audience.

Nature has always been a dominant theme of Ms. Rattazzi's life and work, which ranged from fashion photography to writing books and raising a family. That passion grew stronger as her life evolved.  In November, 2020, The New York Times featured on the front page her stunning photographs of the giant stone formations of southern Utah's Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. “Hoodooland,” first an exhibition and later a book, has been praised by literary and photography critics. Her work called attention to the unique, but endangered rock formations in the national monument that President Trump cut in half in 2017, which President Biden later reinstated.

Priscilla Rattazzi was born in Rome, Italy.  She studied photography at Sarah Lawrence College, and later worked as an assistant to photographer Hiro. Throughout the eighties, Priscilla worked as a fashion and portrait photographer in New York. Her work appeared in Brides, Self, Redbook, New York and The New York Times Magazine. In Italy, her work appeared in Vogue Italia, Donna and Amica.

Priscilla has published four books and one portfolio:

• “Best Friends” a collection of photographs of people with their dogs (Rizzoli, 1989),
• “Children” a collection of photographs of children in early childhood (Rizzoli, 1992)
• “Georgica Pond” a ten-year examination of a body of water on the East End of Long Island (Callaway, 2000)
• “Best Friends” the portfolio, a collection Priscilla’s favorite fourteen photographs from her book “Best Friends” (LunaLola Press, 2006)
• “Luna & Lola” the story of Priscilla’s two dogs, a golden retriever and a dachshund, a metaphorical tale of family life (Callaway, 2010)

Ms. Rattazzi's is currently working on an exhibition entitled “ Three Lindens,” which focuses on trees she has loved for 30 years, through severe times.

Artist image courtesy of Vincent Tullo