Photographer. Called the “Genius of the Black and White” because of his photographic technique, he is regarded by many as one of the greatest contemporary documentary photographers and is remembered for his photographic reportages of the urban landscapes of some of the largest cities in the world. After studying architecture in 1973, he started his profession as a photographer dedicating himself to landscape photography and more particularly to architectural photography. In 1982, he achieved international fame with his reportage about the industrial areas of Milan (Ritratti di Fabbriche). In the mid 80s, he was invited by the French Government to be part of the group of photographers committed to the “Mission Photographique” to document the transformation of the transalpine landscape. His contribution to this mission was then exposed in a large exhibition which took place in Tokyo in 1985. During his forty-year career as a photographer, his works were published in books such as “Italy & France”, “Bord de Mer”, “Porti di Mare”, “Paesaggi di Viaggi”, “Scambi” and “L’esperienza dei luoghi”. His shots of war-torn Beirut went around the world by showing the world the shocking reality of civil war in the Lebanese city. This work consecrated definitively the success and artistic talent of Basilico who published this historic work in the book “Basilico, Beyrouth 1994”. He produced and participated in numerous documentary projects in Italy and abroad; as a result, exhibitions and books were born including notably “Sezioni del paesaggio Italiano” (1998), “Interrupted City” (1999), “Cityscapes” (1999), “Scattered City” (2005), “Intercity” (2007). Among his last works, “Silicon Valley” on behalf of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, “Roma 2007” and “Mosca Verticale”, a photographic project about the cityscape of Moscow that was taken from the top of the seven Stalinist towers were in the International Festival of Photography in 2008. He continued to work up to his death in February 2013 after a long-suffering battle with cancer. (bio by: Ruggero)