Introduction

In 1967, Gianni Bozzacchi, a 23-year-old street kid from the wrong side of the tracks in Rome, was working as an assistant for Pierluigi Praturlon, one of the biggest entertainment photographers in the world. Pierluigi gave Gianni an assignment no one else in the office wanted: fly to Africa, where Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton were filming “The Comedians,” and photograph the production.

Six months later, Gianni was sailing to Monte Carlo with Elizabeth and Richard on their private yacht.

For the next eight years, Gianni lived and worked with Elizabeth and Richard as their personal photographer, their confidant, and their friend. Gianni’s pictures of the most famous couple in the world were published internationally, and Gianni became famous too. He photographed everybody who was anybody: Princess Grace of Monaco, Al Pacino, Clint Eastwood, Picasso, Brigitte Bardot, Raquel Welch, Steve McQueen, to name but a few.

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And then, in 1976, at the height of his career, Gianni retired. For good.

I met Gianni in 2002, when I was finishing my senior year as an English and Film Studies student at Marquette University in Milwaukee, WI USA. I had two questions for Gianni, and as I’ve worked with him for the last 15 years, I’ve discovered that they were the same two questions everyone asks Gianni when they meet him for the first time:

Why did you quit photography?

What the heck are you doing in Wisconsin?

Gianni’s autobiography, “My Life in Focus,” answers both of those questions, while also giving readers a tantalizing glimpse behind the jet set’s velvet rope, and an intimate look at one of the most famous -- and misunderstood -- celebrity marriages of all-time. Because what made Gianni such an indelible photographer, and what made him feel so at home in Wisconsin, is that he never lost his street kid’s eye. Celebrity never impressed him. He photographed every incredible person he met the same way he had learned to see the world: from the ground up.

Over the next couple weeks, I’d like to share Gianni’s incredible life story and pictures with the Steemit community.

If there’s enough interest, I’ll post a complete series of excerpts, beginning to end, that will add up to a “reader’s digest” version of the whole book. You’ll read about the time Gianni pulled a gun on Marlon Brando; the night he and Richard swam for their lives in Portofino; Gianni’s wild ride with Bardot in a “Bullitt” mustang; the story of how the Taylor-Burton Cartier Diamond almost ended up at the bottom of the ocean. You’ll hear Gianni’s memories in his own voice via video clips. And you’ll sample the timeless treasures of his photo archives.

Hopefully one day you’ll see our dream adaptation of “My Life in Focus” on the big screen. But as Gianni and I continue to develop that film and other projects, we hope you’ll follow me @joeyt2K and enjoy this digest version of the book.