Giovanni Gastel began photography in the early 1970s.
In 1981, he started working for numerous fashion magazines, including Vogue, Elle, and Vanity Fair; he also collaborated with world-famous brands such as Dior, Trussardi, Krizia, Tod's, and Versace.
During these years of intense professional commitment, he began to develop his personal style, characterized by a poetic irony. His passion for art history led him to introduce a taste for balanced composition into photographs. His references are to Pop Art and Irving Penn's photographic work.
From 15 September 2020 to 5 March 2021, the MAXXI Museum in Rome presented the exhibition “Giovanni Gastel, The People I Like”.[4]
Gastel died from COVID-19 in Milan on 13 March 2021, at the age of 65, during the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy.[5]