PARIS, FRANCE.- The Bibliotheque Nationale de France presents Mario Giacomelli – Métamorphoses, through April 30. Mario Giacomelli, a photographer who made sometimes lyrical black-and-white photographs with overhead views, including a most famous one of seminarians doing a joyous dance, died at age 75 in 2000.

Giacomelli started taking photos in the 1950s. The Italian news agency ANSA quoted a critic and Giacomelli friend, Sandro Genovali, as saying the photographer "didn't want to document reality. He wanted to transform it."

To achieve this goal, Giacomelli used darkroom techniques to highlight certain aspects of his photography and sometimes directed his subjects, such as farm workers in a field, to move in a certain direction, ANSA added.