Giulia Niccolai, photographer, poet, and Buddhist monk, dies at 87

Giulia Niccolai, a Milanese photographer, poet, and Buddhist monk, died in 2021 at age 87. She lived three distinct lives: first as a photojournalist for Life and Paris Match, covering the 1960 Olympics; then as a writer and poet associated with the Gruppo 63, partner of Adriano Spatola, and creator of visual poetry; and finally, from 1990, as a Buddhist monk. Niccolai and Spatola lived at the Mulino di Bazzano on the banks of the Enza River, where they produced the legendary art and poetry periodical Antologia di Geiger. Marco Senaldi, who met her as a teenager in the mid-1970s, recalls her as a unique, irreproducible person whose photography, poetry, and Buddhism fused into an inimitable blend. She was known for her contagious laugh, hospitality, and an implacable photographic eye.