Photography

Valerio Bellone was born in 1979 and grew up between southern and northern Italy. From an early age, he developed a deep curiosity for world cultures and discovered photography as a means of telling stories about nature, people and personal experience.

In 1999 he embarked on a long journey through the Australian outback, an experience that became a lasting source of visual inspiration. In 2000, in Sydney, he began a two-year course at a private school specialising in commercial photography, completing his studies with a diploma.

In 2002 he was awarded a scholarship to study at the Istituto Europeo di Design in Turin, where he graduated in Digital Design in 2006. The emerging possibilities of digital photography and post-production became part of a professional practice that brought together image-making, visual communication and design.

In northern Italy he worked in commercial photography for the fashion, textile and product sectors, producing studio and location images for companies, professionals and models. He later expanded his work into portraiture, theatre photography, publishing and reportage.

As a freelance photographer he contributed to Italian and international publications, including Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Die Welt and La Repubblica, alongside newspapers, magazines, catalogues and specialist publishing projects. In Palermo he worked as a stage photographer for several theatre organisations and continued his portrait practice with artists, professionals and public figures.

Travel remained central to his work. Between Europe, North Africa, Asia and Oceania, and during extended periods in Sydney and Chiang Mai, Bellone explored natural and human-shaped landscapes, local cultures and social change. His images combine documentary attention with an introspective approach, guided by a contemplative and narrative gaze.

From 2010 to 2016 his work received international awards and distinctions from PX3 Paris, the Black & White Spider Awards, the Photography Masters Cup, the Sony World Photography Awards, IPA and MIFA. His photographs have been exhibited in Moscow, London, Paris, Berlin and Palermo.

Bellone no longer works professionally as a photographer. This page preserves that body of work as part of a wider creative journey that continues to shape his approach to writing, design and visual culture.