In Giacomelli - Contact, Yervant Gianikian and Angela Ricci Lucchi use simple techniques to approach the work of Mario Giacomelli, a photographer born in the small Italian town of Senigallia in 1925. In a thematically ordered way, the filmmakers show us his black-&-white photography, which ranges from portraits of older people in a hospice to pictures of the handicapped in Lourdes to landscapes shots. We hear Mario Giacomelli's voice from off-camera, commenting unobtrusively on his photography, explaining his involvement and his aesthetics. The contrast between light and dark is of crucial importance to him. During the shooting of the bedridden elderly in the hospice, for example, Giacomelli maintains that he was interested in the whiteness of the sheets. In his photographs, these sheets actually take on a menacing effect: they become shrouds from which the dark faces of the elderly emerge. The contrast makes their suffering visible.