Luigi Ghirri was born in Scandiano (Reggio Emilia) on January 5, 1943. He began taking photographs in 1970, working with conceptual artists, and then continued with his own personal research, organizing his projects into different series.
In 1977, with Paola Borgonzoni and Giovanni Chiaramonte, he founded the publishing house Punto e Virgola, with which he released, in Italy and in France, his book Kodachrome (1978), the culmination of research he had begun at the start of the decade.
In 1979, the CSAC of the University of Parma dedicated an extensive monographic exhibition to him.
In 1982, he was invited to the exhibition “Photographie 1922-1982” at the Photokina in Cologne. The following year, the magazine Lotus International gave him the assignment of photographing the Aldo Rossi cemetery in Modena. He began an intense line of work analysing architecture and the landscape, compiling volumes about Capri (1983), with Mimmo Jodice, Emilia-Romagna (1985-1986), and Aldo Rossi (1987). He also did some important work organizing exhibition projects, including “Iconicittà” (1980) at the PAC in Ferrara, “Penisola” (1983) at the Forum Stadtpark in Graz, “Viaggio in Italia” (1984), a traveling exhibition, and “Descrittiva” (1984) for the City of Rimini.
In 1986, he began the inquiry on the Po Valley landscape, Esplorazioni sulla Via Emilia.
In 1989, he published Paesaggio Italiano, and in the same year he also put together another book, Il profilo delle nuvole, a project that he developed with Gianni Celati and devoted to interpreting landscape.
In 1991, he completed a work on Giorgio Morandi, which kept him busy for two years.
He died in Roncocesi (Reggio Emilia) on February 14, 1992.