26/10/2026
I was born in Naples in the late 1920s, but I grew up in Paris. My father, Eugenio, was an Italian-American, born in Boston. Whilst on holiday in southern Italy, he met my mother, Anna, as my grandfather was a judge in Naples. My mother was very beautiful, truly charming. It was love at first sight. Against my grandfather’s advice, they got married and escaped to Paris. My father said to my mother: ‘I’m going to New York and I’ll sort everything out so that you can join me; I’ll take care of it all.’ He left and never came back. Instead of returning to Italy, my mother tried to get a visa, and she fell in love with the consul. That’s how I ended up staying in Paris. By chance.
You don’t just decide spontaneously that you want to become a photographer. My mother’s dream was for me to be a magistrate. I remember one day, when I was 12, I saw a film in which the actor James Cagney played the part of a photographer. He seemed like someone important, with a marvellous lifestyle. When I saw that film, I thought to myself: ‘That’s the job I want to do!’ That’s how it all began – that moment of realisation. James became my role model. For Christmas, my mother gave me a camera, an Agfa Box folding camera. It wasn’t just a toy to me, but I didn’t realise at the time that it would end up saving my life. At the Italian secondary school on Rue Sédillot, I was never a very good pupil, but I took photos of my schoolmates there, before offering to take passport photos.
Text from the book “W***y Rizzo” by Contrejour
www.willyrizzo.com
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***yRizzo
