NAME: Giorgio Baravalle | de.MO
LATIN NAME: oculus cogitum
AGE: 39

For Giorgio Baravalle, it was a book he worked on about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that did it. “After working a few years in graphic design, I found myself lost and burnt out ... through working on the United Nations project I discovered what the real world was about. At that point I decided that I wanted to create documents that would make us think about the world we live in. Publishing books became my mission.”

Baravalle founded the studio de.MO (Design Method of Operation) with his wife Elizabeth in 1997. The two met in San Francisco, where Giorgio studied at the California College of Arts and Crafts and then worked for Tamotsu Yagi Design. Since 2001 de.Mo has conceived, designed and produced 13 books through its own imprint and has worked with some of world’s most important photographers, including Ron Haviv, Christopher Anderson and Paul Fusco … to name a few. “The projects I do are mostly about war, about people suffering,” says Baravalle. “Sometimes they are hard to look at. They show you things that you do not necessarily want to see. But they can be illuminating if you let them.”

James Nachtwey, acclaimed war photographer and founding member of VII images, says of Baravalle’s books, “Giorgio has a strong sense of social consciousness, the determination to make a difference and the resolve to make things better. His work presents our photography to the world.”

The world is paying attention. In 2006 alone, de.Mo’s books received three awards in AIGA’s 50 Books/50 Covers show, a gold and a silver prize from the Art Directors Club and an honorable mention from I.D. magazine. That’s on top of several awards the firm won for commercial work.

Despite the critical acclaim, however, publishing remains very much a labor of love. “Some books sold really well and helped off- set part of the production costs, but if I look at the book projects, I am mostly in the red.” While the books may not be pro. table, there are other rewards: “I love printing,” says Baravalle. “I love to be on press, the smell of ink and the continual change of color balance necessary to achieve the perfect image. I also love editing—it is fantastic to create a story, to make a series of images say something. I get a great feeling of achievement.” Alice Twemlow

TOP: The book FORGOTTEN WAR (2006) was conceived with the simple idea of creating a photographic journal of five VII photographers who had traveled to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to document the work of Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres, an international independent medical humanitarian organization delivering emergency aid to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics, natural and man-made disasters and exclusion from health care in nearly 70 countries. MIDDLE LEFT: WAR: USA, AFGHANISTAN, IRAQ reveals the true story of what the world has faced since that fateful Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001.