Oliver Gagliani

Gagliani died in November 20, 2002 in Burlingame, California. He is buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma, California.

Gagliani earned an MFA degree in Photography from California College of Arts and Crafts in 1973. Oliver studied under and worked with some of the greatest photographers of the 20th century including, Ansel Adams, Minor White, Paul Caponigro, Cole Weston, Paul Strand, Ruth Bernhard. and many others.

In 1954, he founded the Bay Street Photographers Gallery in San Francisco. In 1955, Gagliani began experimenting with color photography.

From 1951 until 1953, he attended the Heald College of Engineering, in San Francisco.

Upon seeing a retrospective on Paul Strand's photography work in 1945 at the San Francisco Museum of Art, he was convinced that photography could be considered fine art. He started working as a photographer in 1948. From 1949 until 1958, Gagliani had tuberculosis and periodically spent time in the sanitarium.

Oliver Lewis Gagliani (1917 – 2002) was an American photographer, and educator. He was a master of large format photography, darkroom technique, and the Zone System. Gagliani was active photographer in the San Francisco Bay Area from 1948 until 2002. He is best known for his beautiful and haunting black-and-white photographs of ghost towns of the southwest.

Born in Placerville, California on February 11, 1917. He was raised in South San Francisco, California. He intended to become a professional musician and studied the violin for ten years. Gagliani served in the United States Army during World War II, and as a result he sustained hearing loss and was no longer able to pursue music.