02/09/2026
Marirosa, la sorella di undici anni più grande di me, lavorò anche per mio padre. Perché lui, per fotografare Coppi che cadeva dalla bici sullo Stelvio durante il Giro d’Italia, si prese una br**ta pleurite e passò un anno in sanatorio. Così fu Marirosa, che studiava a Brera per diventare architetto, a mandare avanti lo studio in quel periodo.
Poi ha sposato Aldo Ballo, anche lui studente di architettura, che però diventò fotografo dopo averla conosciuta. Insieme fondarono un nuovo studio di fotografie di design e architettura: Ballo & Ballo. Collaborarono da subito con la Olivetti, il massimo per l’epoca. Fotografie intellettuali, rigorose, nonostante Marirosa e suo marito fossero entrambi autodidatti. Con il loro stile hanno contribuito ad affermare la fotografia in ambito industriale e di design, e quindi a far conoscere il Made in Italy.
My sister Marirosa, who is eleven years older than me, also worked for my father. Because, in order to photograph Coppi falling off his bicycle on the Stelvio Pass during the Giro d’Italia, he caught a severe case of pleurisy and spent a year in a sanatorium. So it was Marirosa, who was studying architecture at Brera, who kept the studio running during that period.
Later, she married Aldo Ballo, who was also an architecture student, but who became a photographer after meeting her. Together they founded a new studio specializing in design and architectural photography: Ballo & Ballo. They immediately began collaborating with Olivetti, which was the highest achievement at the time. Their photographs were intellectual and rigorous, despite the fact that both Marirosa and her husband were self-taught. Through their style, they helped establish photography within the fields of industry and design, and therefore contributed to making Made in Italy known throughout the world.
Oliviero talks about
Marirosa Toscani and Aldo Ballo. photo by Ugo Mulas
