Pio Tarantini was born in Torchiarolo (Brindisi), in 1950.

He attended the Liceo Classico in Lecce, after which he moved to Milan in 1973 where he took a degree in Political Science at the city's State University.

His first exhibition on social and environmental issues was held in Brindisi in 1972. While he was living in Milan during the 1970s, he furthered his interests in literature and cinema and embarked upon an eclectic collection of documental photography that experimented with traditional figurative arts.  

During the early 1980s, he exhibited his first colour photographs, which dealt with some of Salento's lesser known artistic features. His photographs capturing Lecce's baroque cityscape were published in "Du", a prestigious international art review, to great acclaim in 1987.
In 1985, he compiled a large part of his main work on memory and time, Il passato e i pensieri (Past and Thoughts). Alongside Il giardino interiore (The Interior Garden), a look at nature, and Del crepuscolo (At twilight), which casts a critical eye on a changing world, this stylistically complex piece is part of his Le montagne oltre il mare (Mountains overseas) trilogy with which he concluded another cycle of his oeuvre in the mid 1990s. 
As a complement to his work as a photographer and a producer of images, he opened La Camera Chiara - a gallery for young and up-and-coming photographers - in Milan to which he devoted several years in the mid 1980s.  

He also started to write about photography for a range of magazines and publications. He has taught Photographic Language and History of Photography at the R. Bauer Centre (ex-Umanitaria) in Milan, as well as Phenomenology of Styles at the European Institute of Design in Milan. He also holds courses and conferences on these themes at associations, state and public schools. 

In the 1990s, he was invited to speak at a host of seminars on photography as part of courses at University faculties in Milan, including Political Science, Letters and Architecture. He also took part in a project on architectural and environmental heritage, Archivio dello Spazio (Records of Space), for the Province of Milan and worked on a Visual Sociology project, Photometropolis, at the Faculty of Sociology at the Bicocca University of Milan.

 

From 2003 to 2009 he collaborated with the Milan based art gallery Fotografia Italiana Arte Contemporanea with whom he realized two solo shows and various group shows and coordinated the editorial unit of the publication "Pagine di Fotografia Italiana". He continues writing essays on photography and presentations of other photographers works.

 

3/SETTANTA. Tre reportage degli anni settanta,

            Galleria Monopoli, Milano 2013

Stratigrafie

            Galleria Spaziofarini6, Milano 2012

Imago

            Galleria Spazio Tadini, Milano 2011

            Galleria Luxardo, Roma, 2008

Arte sacra minore nel Salento

            Masseria Le Pezzate, Maglie (Lecce) 2010

Le montagne oltre il mare

            Castello Carlo V, Monopoli (Bari) 2009

            Museo Provinciale, Lecce, 2008

Scenari

            Fotografia Italiana Arte Contemporanea, Milano, 2006

L’ombra del Vero

            Fotografia Italiana, Milano, 2003

Studi sul mosso

            Officina Fotografica, Milano, 2002

Sere a Sud-Est

            Galleria Bibli, Roma, 2003

            Cappella del Castello Svevo, Bari, 2002

            Foyer Università Bocconi, Milano, 2001

Ritratti a Iselle

            Iselle di Trasquera (Verbania), 2000

Del Crepuscolo - Tra notti barocche e sere padane

            Palazzo Carafa, (Palazzo di Città), Lecce, 1998

Le montagne oltre il mare

            Cascina Grande, Rozzano (MI), 1998

L’ambiguo paesaggio

            Centro Culturale Braxon, Milano, 1997

Del Crepuscolo

            Fondazione Corrente, Milano 1996

Il Giardino Interiore

            Museo Nuova Era - Spazio Immagine, Bari, 1995

Archivio dello Spazio della Provincia di Milano (mostre personali)

            Spazio Guicciardini della Provincia di Milano, 1994

            Biblioteca Civica presso Villa Facheris, Inzago, 1994

            Corte Valenti, Garbagnate Milanese, 1995

Appunti milanesi

            Galleria San Fedele, Milano, 1989

Aree industriali a Brindisi

            Artoteca Alliance, Bari, 1989

Il Passato e i Pensieri

            Spazio Immagine, Bari, 1988

            San Giovanni al Sepolcro, Brindisi, 1989

Aree grige

            Comune di Vimodrone, 1987

Dal barocco all’architettura spontanea

            Studio di architettura Begnozzi e Kanah, Milano, 1986

Arte Sacra minore nel Salento

            Sacrestia del Bramante, Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milano, 1985

            Casa Cini, Ferrara, 1985

            Santa Maria della Grazia, Lecce, 1985

            Comune di Melissano, 1985

            Comune di San Vito dei Normanni, 1988

Arte barocca a Brindisi

            Museo Provinciale, Brindisi, 1984

Lecce Barocca

            Il Diaframma, Milano, 1984

            Facoltà di Architettura, Politecnico di Torino, 1985

            Casa Cini, Ferrara, 1985

Architettura minore nel Salento

            Museo Provinciale, Brindisi, 1983

            Circolo Filologico, Milano, 1983

            Galleria Abrakadabra, Bari, 1984

• 3/SETTANTA. Tre reportage degli anni settanta,Milano 2013
• Stratigrafie, Milano 2012
• Le montagne oltre il mare, Lecce 2008
• Mille chilometri vicino, Milano 2008
• Scenari, Milano 2006
• L’ombra del Vero, Milano 2003
• Pio Tarantini - Trent’anni di fotografie, Milano 2002
• Del Crepuscolo - Tra notti barocche e sere padane, Lecce 1998
• Milanopoli - L’immagine della città (realizzato nell’ambito del progetto Photo­metropolis della Facoltà di Sociologia dell’Università Milano-Bicocca), Milano 1998
• Pio Tarantini e il suo angelo, Milano 1995
• Itinerari barocchi tra il passato e i pensieri, Brindisi 1989
• Arte sacra minore nel Salento, Ferrara 1985
• Fotogrammi - Appunti per film e fotografie, Milano 1982