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Alberta Tiburzi was born in Rome and lives and works in Orvieto and Rome. Her fashion career began with international success as a model in the second-half of the sixties. Thanks to Consuelo Crespi, the correspondent for Vogue America in Rome, she signed a contract with the magazine and went to New York. Here, she developed an interest in the visual arts and came into contact with the photographers Norman Parkinson and Irving Penn. She was particularly successful as a model in the US, appearing on the covers of magazines such as Look and Harper's Bazaar. During her stay in America she also worked as an actress in the feature film The Fall directed by Peter Whitehead in 1969. In the first-half of the seventies the Japanese photographer for Harper's Bazaar, Hiro, chose her as a model. During the shooting of a photo feature for Life on the island of Tobago, he encouraged her to take up photography. Back in Italy, Tiburzi published her first photos in the weekly L'Espresso and in L'Uomo Vogue, including her portrait of Dustin Hoffman. In 1975 she began her activity as a professional fashion photographer. In this field she has worked with Anna, Amica, the Italian edition of Harper's Bazaar, Linea Italiana, Lui, Il Venerdì di Repubblica, Vogue Italia, and photography magazines such as Foto and Photo. In her outdoor shots she lets imposing works of architecture or vast landscapes overshadow the presence of the model, as in the shots for the evening wear of the spring/summer 1980 collection of Valentino, photographed for Linea Italiana (1980), and the fall/winter 1982- 1983 collections of Roberto Capucci and Pino Lancetti published in Amica (1982). She has developed a personal approach to lighting, earning her the nickname of "signora della luce." She uses mirrors to illuminate parts of the face, to project blades of light, to create strong contrasts, and to enhance the surfaces of the body. "I want light to serve me," Tiburzi says, and in the studio she uses quartz lights and cinema spots, with paper or fabric backdrops. She likes to photograph women because, she says, they are more esthetically interesting and versatile. In her images they are strong and proud, when nude, and mysterious and beautiful when wrapped in furs. She remains faithful to fashion when she works in the field of advertising, creating images for producers of furs, bathing suits, and wedding gowns, and for prêt-à-porter maisons like Callaghan and Genny. She also works in the beauty sector, shooting campaigns for companies such as Revlon. In the field of portraiture she has photographed celebrities from the worlds of cinema, art, and entertainment, including Loredana Bertè, Jack Nicholson, Ornella Vanoni, and Andy Warhol. Reviews of her work have appeared in specialized magazines like Life Photographers (1983), Progresso Fotografico (1986), Pro (1987), and Fotopratica (1989). Photographs and writings by Tiburzi were published in the books Il mestiere di fotografo (1984) and Fotografia e seduzione nei luoghi del disincanto (1999) (less).
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