Franco Donaggio has been working as a photographer and artist in Milan since 1979. His art production is the fruit of an accurate intellectual and conceptual operation. From the beginning of his career, he has devoted himself to fine art photography creating highly aesthetic images obtained by deepened research in darkroom focused on off-camera experimentation. His pictures – influenced by surrealism and visual poetry – contain a magic universe where the subjects are drawn from everyday life, but they are never what they seem to be (because they are decontextualized).
In 1992 he is awarded the Pubblicità Italia prize for still life photography. In 1995 he carries out his first important fine art project entitled Metaritratti which wins the first prize in the European Kodak Gold Award – section Portray – in 1996. Donaggio always dedicates particular attention to auteur photography and starts close collaboration with Italian, European and American gallerists, among which is the Joel Soroka Gallery of Aspen which represents him in the United States and introduces him in the major international art photography events such as the AIPAD show, New York; Art Miami, Miami; Photo LA, Los Angeles and Art Fair, Chicago. Today Donaggio is fully devoted to art projects and is judged to be among the most original and appreciated Italian artists experimenting with the photographic medium. Donaggio has achieved several art projects, published in lots of magazines, exhibited in countless galleries and museums in Italy and abroad. His works are part of numerous public and private collections.
In October 2014 Donaggio receives the acknowledgment from the Rotary Club – Un Lavoro una Vita – and in 2018 is awarded the international Career Prize in Benevento. Donaggio has also been a Commissioner at IED – Istituto Europeo di Design – in Milan, visiting professor at Accademia of Brera in Milan, at the Istituto Italiano di Fotografia in Milan and at Cà Foscari University in Venice.