Italo Zannier, a Spilimbergo (Pordenone) native and one of Italy's finest photography scholars, died at the age of 94. A lecturer and critic, he was the first person in Italy to hold a chair in the history of photography. He was trained as an architect but soon switched to photography, becoming a key role in the Gruppo Friulano per la Nuova Fotografia (Friulian Group for New Photography), which he co-founded in 1955. After starting at Ca' Foscari University and the IUAV in Venice, he went on to teach at the DAMS (University of Bologna), the Cultural Heritage Institute in Ravenna, and the Catholic University in Milan, where he published over 500 volumes of catalogs, historical and scientific research. He was a member of the scientific committees of the Alinari Museum of the History of Photography in Florence and CRAF, the Spilimbergo Photography Research and Archive Center, which he established in 1994 in Lestans di Sequals. Additionally, he was an active curator, overseeing the photography section of numerous Venice Art Biennale editions and curating a multitude of exhibitions. He spent his retirement years in Lignano Sabbiadoro. He documented the landscapes, communities, and transformations of Friuli, creating a valuable visual heritage.