Mario Piacenza

Date of birth: 21-04-1884

Died: 16-04-1957

Place of birth: Biella

Died: Turin

Son of Felice, descendant of an important family of textile industrialists of Pollone, his name is particularly associated with mountain climbing (he was the first to climb the Matterhorn by the Furggen crest in 1911), and his travels outside Europe in the Caucasus (1910) and the Himalayas (1913). On these occasions he took hundreds of photographs, which are important from a documentary and aesthetic point of view. Among the first to film mountain ascents, he   made some important films such as Ascensione al Cervino* (1911-1912) and Salita al Dente del Gigante** (1911). He also documented the expedition to the Caucasus in 1910 with a film over 30 minutes in length. He published an important volume on the Kashmiri Himalayas. For many years he was director of the National Museum of the Mountains in Turin to which he donated his entire collection of ethnographic objects collected on his solitary visit to Ladakh during his expedition to the Kasmiri Himalayas in 1913. His photographs were displayed at important exhibitions and published in numerous catalogues.

*  Climbing the Matterhorn

** The Dente del Gigante is one of the peaks of the Mont Blanc range