Jean Pigozzi

Collector and photographer Jean Pigozzi is renowned for his eclectic art collection and for his social circle, which includes film icons, directors, authors and artists, rock stars, fashion designers and titans of industry. Following on from his previous bestselling book ME+CO: The Selfies 1972–2016, his latest collection introduces us to the men and mentors who influenced his life. From his father Enrico Pigozzi—who passed away when Jean was just a teenager—to Italian entrepreneur Gianni Agnelli, from rock stars Mick Jagger and Bono to architect Ettore Sottsass, Pigozzi travelled the world and met many of these men during gallery openings, parties, or dinner conversations. Through The 213 Most Important Men in My Life, we are reminded of the power of single individuals of the 20th and 21st centuries who became true icons in their fields.
Jean Pigozzi was born in Paris in 1952. He attended Harvard University, where he studied film and photography. After graduating, he worked in film and television. He began keeping a visual journal of his friends, family, travels, and surroundings in the 1960s. His first solo exhibition of photography was at Muse?e d’Art Moderne, Paris, and his photographs have since been exhibited worldwide.

Over the last two summers, Jean Pigozzi (born 1952) has been taking photographs of his young, very playful dogs, Charles and Saatchi. This book compiles his portraits of the dogs and includes a foreword by Charles Saatchi.

A few short years ago, one could say that people were still primarily interested in recording what was in front of them. Then, all of a sudden, people were turning their cameras around and taking pictures of themselves.

But as it happens, Jean Pigozzi (born 1952)—Italian businessman, art collector, philanthropist and photographer—has been taking selfies for more than 40 years (even though he is neither an American nor a millennial)! If the selfie is still in its “Neolithic phase,” as Saltz suggested, Pigozzi’s photographs represent a previously unknown Paleolithic one, with Pigozzi taking selfies as early as the 1970s.

Jean Pigozzi: ME + CO brings this unique body of work together for the first time. The book includes dozens of famous faces, such as those of Mick Jagger, Faye Dunaway, Mel Brooks, Andy Warhol and Lady Gaga, all pressed against Pigozzi’s face; Pigozzi also poses with the belly of a Turkish belly dancer, a busload of Japanese tourists and a stuffed dog. Pigozzi’s collected selfies are fascinating and fun, both for their strangely contemporary quality and for their old-school innocence.