Antonio Martinelli is a French-Italian photographer born on 30 September 1953 in Venice, Italy. He currently lives in Paris.

Venetian photographer and architect by training, Antonio Martinelli graduated from Università Iuav di Venezia (Istituto Universitario di Architettura Venezia). Established in Paris since the late 1980s, he has earned an international reputation for his long and extensive photographic experience in the fields of architecture and heritage.

From an early age he frequented the Venice Circolo Fotografico La Gondola.^[1] During his Venetian years, he became friend with Hugo Pratt for whom he made the introductory photographs of the book: Corto Maltese - Fable de Venise.^[2]

In 1979, Domus magazine commissioned the photographer to report on the construction and installation of the Teatro del Mondo in Venice, a work by architect Aldo Rossi sponsored by the Venice Biennale.^[3] Antonio Martinelli followed the evolution of the work, from the laying of the structure's first pole on the barge to the introduction into the waters of the Teatro, through to the maiden voyage in the mist of the Venetian lagoon towards the Punta della Dogana, at the entrance of the Grand Canal. After that, he accompanied the Teatro on his journey to the Adriatic Sea until Dubrovnik.

The collaboration with Domus and the Biennale opened for Martinelli the doors of the Venice Arsenal, for a work documenting the first exhibition of the Venice Biennale of Architecture: La Strada Novissima,^[4] installed in 1980 in the long Corderie building. The first photographer to have documented the Arsenal interiors, he continued this exploration for the book of Giorgio Bellavitis L’Arsenale di Venezia Storia di una grande struttura urbana (Marsilio Edition, 1983).^[5]

His friendship with Aldo Rossi and other renowned architects and historians, among which Francesco Dal Co,^[6] Manfredo Tafuri, Mario Botta, Jean-Louis Cohen,^[7][8][9] Claude Vasconi,^[10][11] Henri Gaudin,^[12] Massimiliano Fuksas and Peter Zumthor,^[13] led to other collaborations and projects on Venice, Italy, France and Japan.

In 1972, Martinelli set out to discover the Indian subcontinent. This trip marked the beginning of a long and passionate frequentation of India that resulted in multiple photographic projects for many publications and exhibitions throughout Europe, in New York and in India.^[14][15][16]

The photographer's interest for architecture and landscapes also led him to work for the Italian Touring Club^[17][18] and the publisher Franco Maria Ricci (FMR and AD Architectural Digest). From 1980, he began his collaboration with Japanese architecture magazine A + U Architecture & Urbanism, for which he carried out numerous reports and monographs on global architecture.^{[19][20][21][22]}

Photographs attributed to Martinelli are held in the Conway Library at The Courtauld Institute of Art in London, whose archive, of primarily architectural images, is in the process of being digitised under the wider Courtauld Connects project.^[23]

• 1991 - L’Arsenale di Venezia - Paris, Institut Culturel Italien
• 1998 - Oriental Scenery: Then and Now, Art Today Gallery, New Delhi
• 1999 - Venise et le Théâtre du Monde : Hommage à l’architecte Aldo Rossi, Théâtre du Rond Point des Champs-Élysées, Paris
• 2000 - Oriental Scenery : Two hundred years of India’s artistic and architectural heritage -Victoria Memorial Hall - Calcutta
• 2000 - Velha Goa- Fondaçao Oriente – Macau
• 2001 - Velha Goa- Maison du Portugal, Paris
• 2005 - Passages en Inde. Hier et Aujourd’hui– Conciergerie, Paris^[30][39]
• 2005 - Passaggi in India. Ieri e Oggi– Scuderie del Quirinale 2005^[40][41]
• 2011 - Oriental Scenery: Yesterday & Today– Indira Gandhi National Center for the Arts – New Delhi^[34]
• 2011 - Lucknow au Miroir du Temps- Musée Guimet, Paris^[35][42]
• 2012 - LaTendenza- Centre George Pompidou – Paris^[43]
• 2013 - Venice's Arsenale 1980 - Awaiting for a New Beginning- Art Moorhouse, London^[5]
• 2015 – Sultans of Deccan India, 1500-1700: Opulence and Fantasy- The Metropolitan Museum of Art - New York^[37]
• 2015 - In the Footsteps of Le Corbusier- Art Heritage Gallery, New Delhi^[44][45][46]
• 2018 - Pesaro, la splendeur d’une villa impériale- Institut culturel italien de Paris^[47][48]

Antonio Martinelli's published books include:

• Kanch Mandir Il Tempio degli Specchi (Franco Maria Ricci)^[49]
• Teatro del Mondo - Aldo Rossi (Cluva)^[50]
• India (Touring Club Italiano)^[51]
• Carlo Scarpa (A+U)^[19]
• Firenze (Touring Club Italiano)
• Mario Botta (A+U)^[20]
• The 20th Century Architecture and Urbanism : Paris (A+U)^[52]
• The 20th Century Architecture and Urbanism : Milano (A+U)^[53]
• Voyage en Inde (Citadelles & Mazenot)^[54]
• Palais du Rajasthan (Citadelles & Mazenot)^[55]
• Lucknow au Miroir du Temps (Filigrane)^[56]
• 2015 – Sultans of Deccan India, 1500-1700: Opulence and Fantasy- The Metropolitan Museum of Art - New York^[37]
• Islamic architecture of the Deccan, India, text by George Michell, Helen Philon ; photographs: Antonio Martinelli, Woodbridge : ACC Art Books, 2018, ISBN 9781851498611
• Palaces of Rajasthan, Antonio Martinelli & George Michell, with Aman Nath, London : Frances Lincoln, 2005, ISBN 0711225052
• Paris architecture, 1900-2000 par Jean-Louis Cohen et Monique Eleb ; photographies d' Antonio Martinelli, Paris : Éditions Norma, 2000
• India : yesterday and today : two hundred years of architectural and topographical heritage in India, aquatints by Thomas and William Daniell ; modern photographs by Antonio Martinelli ; text by George Michell, Shrewsbury : Swan Hill Press, 1998, ISBN 1840370718
• The Royal Palaces of India, George Michell ; photographs by Antonio Martinelli, London : Thames and Hudson, 1994, ISBN 0500341273
• India, Antonio Monroy ; photographs Antonio Martinelli and Roberto Meazza, London : Orbis, 1985, ISBN 0856139467

The photographer has been a contributor for the weekly magazines Point de Vue and Images du Monde for several years.