Mirella Ricciardi, an Italian photographer and writer born in Kenya in 1931, is internationally recognized for her work in ethnographic and landscape documentation, with a particular focus on the African continent. Trained in Paris under the guidance of Harry Meerson, she developed an intimate and powerful style, predominantly in black and white. Her career reached its peak with the publication of the photographic book *Vanishing Africa* in 1971. The work, which became a worldwide bestseller translated into numerous languages, brought her immediate renown, establishing her as one of the most important visual chroniclers of vanishing traditional cultures and ways of life. Her body of work also includes other significant volumes such as *African Saga* and *Vanishing Amazon*, in which she explores similar themes in other parts of the world. Her contribution has been fundamental in preserving the visual memory of worlds threatened by modernization, earning her widespread critical and public acclaim.