Giovanna Calvenzi, after graduating in Literature from Milan's Catholic University, begins teaching history of photography and photographic language at the professional courses for photographers of the Società Umanitaria, which later became the Riccardo Bauer Professional Training Centre of the Regione Lombardy Riccardo Bauer. She collaborated with number periodicals (Capital, Domus, Interni, Photo Italia, Linea Grafica). Chief editor of the weekly magazine Amica (1985) and then of the monthly Max in 1987 and Photo-Editor of '7', the weekly supplement of the Italian national newspaper Corriere della Sera. Photo-editor of Vanity Fair, Lei Glamour and Sportweek then between 2012 and 2015, image consultant at Periodici San Paolo. From 2016 to 2019 she was image consultant for Donna Moderna, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore. From 2015 to 2022 she is president of the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Cinisello Balsamo-Milan. Since 2020 she has been in charge of the Gabriele Basilico Archive, Milan.
In 1990 Calvenzi has been awarded “The best photo-editor in Europe”, by the association Droit de Regard, at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris. Member of the advisory board of the Mosaïque photography grant program in Luxembourg, from 1996 to 2004; in 1998 Calvenzi is the Artistic director of the XXIXth edition of Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie in Arles and from 1999 to 2002, member of the acquisitions committee of the Fond National d’Art Contemporain in Paris. Jury Member of the Eugene Smith Award in New York In 1999 then Jury Member of the World Press Photo Contest in Amsterdam in 1995, 2005, 2010 and in 2011. Calvenzi is Faculty Master at the World Press Photo Master Class in 1993 and 1999.5. Guest curator at Photo España in Madrid in 2002 she is Faculty at the Master in Publishing at the Scuola Superiore di Studi Umanistici in Bologna from 2002 to 2008. From 2004 to 2013 photo-editing Faculty at at the Centro di Formazione Professionale Riccardo Bauer in Milan. Artistic delegate with Laura Serani of the Mois de la Photo in Paris in 2014. Calvenzi curates in 2015, the exhibition “Italia Inside Out”, for the Milan Palazzo della Regione, 42 Italian authors reflecting on their country, and “Henri Cartier-Bresson e gli altri”, with the work of 36 international authors on Italy. She has published, among others, Italia. Portrait of a country in sixty years of photography (2003), Letizia Battaglia. Sulle ferite dei suoi sogni (2010), Le cinque vite di Lisetta Carmi (2012, republished in 2023), Antonia Pozzi. Sopra il nudo cuore, with Ludovica Pellegatta (2015), Interviste (2019). In 2023 he curated, with Filippo Maggia and Matteo Balduzzi, two large exhibitions dedicated to Gabriele Basilico and the related book-catalogue Le mie città, at the Triennale Milano and at Palazzo Reale.
