Italo Rondinella (1974) is an Italian documentary photographer, journalist and filmmaker based in Istanbul.
He graduated in law. After spending almost a decade working as a lawyer, he decided to focus entirely on documentary photography. This had been his passion ever since he was a teenager. Later, he added video to his narrative languages, and developed personal visuals for storytelling. His main interests are social issues related to the conflicts and challenges of contemporary global society: migration, minorities, and the environment. For almost fifteen years he has been working with both international media outlets and cultural institutions. These include the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the European Union, the Venice Biennale Foundation, and the RAI (Italian national public broadcasting company) foreign correspondents’ office for Turkey and south-eastern Europe. He currently collaborates regularly with the RSI (Italian-speaking Swiss public broadcasting organisation).
- From 2017 to 2018 he worked as a contributor photographer for UNHCR Turkey.
- He has been official photographer of the Venice Biennale Foundation, for the International Art Exhibition, in the editions of 2011, 2013, 2017 and 2019 and for the International Architecture Exhibition in the editions of 2014, 2016 and 2018.
- Since 2016 he is a contributor, as a video producer, video editor and journalist, of RSI (Radiotelevisione svizzera).
- In 2016, on assignment for the European Union, he has been the official photographer of the Election Observation Mission to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Parliamentary elections 2016.
- In 2015 he collaborated, as a video producer and video editor, with RAI ISTANBUL, the Office of Rai (Radiotelevisione Italiana S.p.A.) in Turkey and South Eastern Europe.
- In 2014 he joined the American photo agency Polaris Images.
- In 2009 he moved to Barcelona to specialise in photojournalism at the UAB. From then on, he collaborated with el Periódico de Catalunya and with the reporting department of the Cordon Press/Corbis photo agency.
- In 2007 he started his career as a daily news photographer for Corriere della Sera.