Photographer and set designer Maria Vittoria Backhaus dies at 83

Maria Vittoria Backhaus, an Italian artist, photographer, and set designer, died on Sunday, September 7, 2025, at the age of 83 in Rocchetta Tanaro, Piedmont, where she had moved from Milan in recent years. Born in 1942, she trained as a set designer at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera and frequented Bar Jamaica alongside influential photographers Ugo Mulas, Mario Dondero, and Alfa Castaldi. She began her career as a photojournalist in the 1960s, documenting the beat scene and cultural and political movements. Facing obstacles in the male-dominated field of reportage, she reinvented herself in the 1980s, collaborating with magazines such as L'Uomo Vogue, Casa Vogue, Abitare, and Io Donna. Her meticulously composed still lifes reveal a theatrical influence, with light as a protagonist and narratives emerging from everyday objects. For over twenty years, she collaborated with Flexform, helping define Italian design's global image, while maintaining a personal research practice. In 2021, she received the Premio alla Carriera Arturo Ghergo and moved to Rocchetta Tanaro with her archive and studio. In 2023, her first major Italian retrospective, "I miei racconti oltre la fotografia," was held at the Middle MonFest in Casale Monferrato.