The Great Beauty

The founder, owner and president of Pier 59 Studios, the largest and most acclaimed photography and multimedia complex in the world, commonly defined as the Hollywood of photography, Federico Pignatelli della Leonessa is also the founder and president of Art and Fashion Group (AFG), a holding company for an array of business services to the advertising and fashion industries, including talent representation and production. Besides his vocation for photography, Pignatelli is an architect and designer by passion, having conceived and designed in detail not only his photography studios but also the homes in which he lives, including his loft in SoHo, New York, and his villa in Beverly Hills, California, as well as the interiors of his two motor yachts, one of which is moored in the Mediterranean and the other in the Caribbean. Born in 1963 in Rome to one of Italy's most noble and ancient families, the origins of which can be traced back to 900 AD, Pignatelli holds the title of Prince and counts among his ancestors Pope Innocent XII, 1691-1700, as well as a number of Cardinals and valiant Commanders at the service of the Vatican. Pignatelli has led successful careers as a real estate developer, a financial journalist in international monetary policy, and a technology investment banker and venture capitalist, while living in Rome, Milan, Geneva, London and finally New York, where he has made his home. In 1993 he decided to seriously pursue his enduring passion for photography. Using his well-developed business judgment and intuition, he created Pier 59 Studios, constructing the world's largest and most technologically advanced photography and multimedia complex on a large, abandoned pier overlooking the Hudson River in Manhattan, New York. Featuring 11 different studios and sound stages with huge, column-free spaces, cathedral ceilings, state-of-the-art technologies and the best natural light in Manhattan, Pier 59 Studios has become the premier location for photo- graphic and video productions and a major point of reference for fashion and advertising production companies. The 110,000 square foot facility occupies an entire pier on the Hudson River, spanning 1,000 feet in length and three blocks in width in the fashionable Chelsea district of Manhattan, which over the last 15 years has become the center of the New York art world. Pignatelli is a passionate collector of artistic photography and a photographer in his own right. Many of his pictures have been published worldwide. Pier 59 Studios is celebrating, in the year 2015, its 20th year as an unmatched facility at the service of the creative arts.