In 1961, Mario Giacomelli met a group of young students at the seminary in Senigallia. With the permission of the church, he photographed them in moments of relaxation after long hours of study and prayer, which were intended to prepare them for life in the church.
He shows priests playing ball, jumping around, playing with kittens or walking through the snow in their long coats, or throwing pillows in the dormitories to the confusion and amusement of everyone; finally, he photographed them from the roof of the seminary as they danced a round dance.
Giacomelli decided to change the name of the series from ‘pretini’ (young priests) to ‘io non ho mani che mi accarezzino il volto’ (‘there are no hands to caress my face’), the title of a poem by Father David Maria Turoldo, and accompanied each image with a clear series of thoughts.
During one of his Sunday visits to the young priests, he brought them some cigars and photographed them smoking. This was despite having been accused of mocking the nakedness of elderly people in a nursing home, where he had also taken photographs. Here at the seminary, he was accused of causing unrest in a place where strict discipline was supposed to reign. These images, which opened the doors to his fame, closed the doors of the seminary to him: from that day on, he was forbidden to take photographs. Giacomelli tried to focus his lens on situations of suffering. The suffering that had led him to be alone as a young man.
The bottle was covered with a special metal coating in memory of the camera that was inseparable from Mario Giacomelli. Filippo Sorcinelli had the good fortune to meet him personally as a teenager. The cap was covered with a special and exclusive double leather, with a metal that anyone can ‘mould’ to create their own perfume creation. This material refers to the dance of the black robes of the seminarians photographed by the great master. The fabric, like the fragrance, is intended to recall Mario Giacomelli's bag full of tobacco.
