Lella Beretta was born in Vercelli, a small town of northern Italy. She attended the Public University of Milan and she got a Philosophy degree. Her passion for photography sprang up in 1973 and it led her to become a professional in 1976. During the same year, she approached fine art photography by taking part in some of the most prestigious photography exhibitions and contests organized by F.I.A.F. (Federazione Italiana Arte Fotografica).
She immediately succeeded in many Italian towns and we are, now, going to remember some of the most important ones.
She won first prizes and awards in several editions of the “Cupolone” of Florence and of “Chimera” of Arezzo. She participated in and won Photography competitions in Cascina, Lugo di Romagna, Bergamo, Marina di Pisa, Bognanco, Reggio Calabria, Tolentino, Ancona, San Donnino. She got Absolute Trophies in Arezzo, Viareggio, Alatri, Brescia, Falconara, Caorle, Rimini and many more.Interesting collaboration experiences were born with weekly newspapers such as “Gioia” and “la Domenica del corriere” where she took care of images and photo sessions about prominent people.
She took part in the Kodak National contest during a television broadcast called “Buona Domenica” hosted by Maurizio Costanzo. She won the first prize in the “Portrait” section.
In 1979 she was conferred upon her first important FIAF honour: the A.F.I.A.P. (Artiste de la Federation Internationale de l’Art Photographique).
After a short break, she decided to confront herself with international photography going back to participating in the most challenging contests all around the world. She won prestigious awards such as:
gold medals, trophies, certificates of merit in the various editions of the contests of Buenos Aires, Hong Kong, Bristol, Scottish Saloon, Greather Lynn, Welsh, Northern Counties, Algarve, Limours and several Austrian towns, in addition to many other trophies in the national and international circuits.
In 2001 she received and international honour, way more important than the previous one: the E.F.I.A.P. (Excellence de la Federation Internationale de l’Art Photographique).She began a two years and a half long photographic job for a famous tour operator which allowed her to create images in some of the most beautiful places of the world.
In 2003 she participated in the Photography World Cup with other nine artists who formed the Italian team and won the collective gold medal.
In 2005 she took part in the competition for a second time, in Andorra, obtaining two huge results: she won the World Cup again with the Italian team and the silver medal as single author between the 400 best artists belonging to the 40 participating world countries.
Since 2003 she organizes personal exhibitions in which she showed big sized pictures that tell people’s life through glances, faces and environment. We remember the last ones: Vercelli, Varallo, Livorno, Adria, Taormina, Turin, Guardabosone, Novara, etc. ...
When it is possible for her, she collaborates with local periodicals photographing the people mentioned in the articles, trying to tell the soul
of the character with one click.
She participates in the first ISF Women's World Exhibition of Photography with 46 other international authors in Ravenna and Bologna in May 2007, a collective exhibition which was going to travel the world is now being held in Pechio since last May.During the months of September and October, 2007, she held her first international touring exhibition in four major cities of South Africa: Joannesbourg, Pretoria, Durban and Cape Town. The images in this exhibition, which was a success beyond all expectations, were then sold to carry out charities and one of the pictures is nowhanging in a room of the Italian Embassy in Pretoria.
At the end of 2008 she took part in the ISF World Cup achieving the third place ad four diplomes d’honneur in four out of the five juries (Spain, China, Vietnam, Italy and Ciprus). In Paris, at the end of 2009 she received the prize.
In the first six months of 2009 she attended the four contests of Liguria Circuit winning three important prizes and then the Trieremberg Supercircuit of Austria where she obtained the gold medal.On the 20th of September, 2009, during the “Fotogiro Piemontese”, a photographic competition of 23 Piedmont clubs in Turin, she received the first prize, the prize for best author, and for the most voted photos.
In the second half of 2009 she took part in a prestigious Californian circuit and got the gold and bronze medal respectively in Garden Grove and Santa Ana.
In February, 2010, she won the trophy as the best author of the show in the International Competition of Montevarchi.
In November she took part in the ISF World Cup obtaining two gold medals, a bronze one and two Honorable Mentions from six concurrent panels of judges in six different countries of the world. 2011 begins with the great success of the Italian team, to which she belongs: Italy wins the Fiap World Cup and is first between 40 nations.
Meanwhile, Lella began to create evening shows of digital screenings of her "Filosofia per Immagini" all around Italy.
Recently, she’s been invited to expose her photos in the USA. The show is in the Meat Packing District in Manhattan, New York and it will last from December 2011 to the end of April 2012.
Alongside her artistic career, she continues to work as a "photographer of people" telling moments, emotions, joys of the stages of life.
At the beginning of 2012 she was asked by the Precidency of Turin to create an artistic work about the best craftsmanships in Piedmont. During October of the same year, a traveling exhibit with her pictures started accompanied by a prestigious catalogue.
Again at the end of October 2012, she won the Absolute Trophy during the International contest of Ravenna.
During May 2013, while her exhibition in New York is taking place, “Amici per la pelle”, the very work in her collection that better represents the message of “brotherhood”, enters the White House as a personal gift for President Obama, a symbol of races equality.
During October of the same year, the same piece of the collection was sent to and accepted by Pope Francis, who represents the religious and moral effort to make these qualities triumph.
From December 8th,, 2013 to January 12th,2014 she was invited by some American promoters in a gallery located in the heart of the Italian capital city of Rome to join an exhibition with her art photographic collection, right next to the best pieces of art from sculpture and painting and Fashion creativity personalities.
At the beginning of 2014, she won other important prizes during international contests and she received the EFIAP silver prize during the FIAF congress in Cesenatico, thanks to the achieved results.
In the same period of time, the FIAP World Tour “Women’s photo art” starts from Montevarchi. It collected the artistic pictures from the best woman artists in photography and it will travel around the world with Lella and another artist from Veneto (Italian region in the north-east of Italy) as representatives for Italy in Photographic art. During 2016 she completes her artistic collection “Fairy Tales” which she started three years before. This collection tells Stories of “Contemporary Fairies” through romantic pictures, with a bit of vintage taste, and it wants to be, above all, the celebration of an ethereal and reinassance “Beauty”, untied to fashion and time and set in pictouresque and evocative landscapes. The Fairy Tales Collection gains a great success and a lot of these works got a lot of prestigious results in international competitions, also becoming covers for artistics magazines like, for example, “Image Sans Frontiere” in France. The American magazine “l’IDEA” publishes an in-depth interview that explains in detail Lella Beretta’s artistic path and how Fairy Tales were born. In 2016, two pieces of this collection that describe glimpses of Varallo and Vercelli with an original point of view, were given as well-accepted gifts to the Italian President Sergio Mattarella during his visit in these two towns. In may 2016, during the National FIAF Congress in Merano, she receives her highest award, “EFIAP GOLD”, as the first woman in Italy and among few women in the world.
“Filosofia per Immagini”, in the meantime, gets converted to a digital version with the same name too and it was higly requested from photographic clubs or associations connected to Photographic art.
Alongside her artistic career, she continues to work as "photographer of people" telling moments, emotions, joys of the stages of life.
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