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Remembering Carlo Borlenghi
21 August 2026
Carlo Borlenghi, famed for his regatta photos, died from an abdominal infection earlier this month in Lecco, Italy. He was 70 years old.
A native of Bellano on Italy's Lake Como, Carlo Borlenghi was born in 1956. His father owned a family plumbing business that he hoped his son would take over one day. But Borlenghi developed an interest in photography and sailing early, shooting photos of friends racing in local regattas, which he later tried to sell to them.
In his early 20s, Uomo Marie, a supplement to Uomo Vogue, hired him to photograph regattas on the northwestern coastal city of Alassio, Italy.
He became the official photographer for Azzurra, the first Italian challenger for the America's Cup in 1983. From then on, he shot every Italian challenger to the Cup, including the current Luna Rossa team. He also became the official event photographer after several years.
'I'm able to emphasize the sea in a way that's different from many others, precisely because I fear it.'
America's Cup wasn't the only regatta that engaged Borlenghi. He also photographed the Whitbread and Volvo Ocean Races and became the official photographer for the Dubois Cup, the Loro Piana Superyacht Regatta and the Perini Navi Cup.
In 1989, Carlo Borlenghi created the photographic agency Sea&See Italy, specialized in water sports. He covered the shipbuilding industry, photographing for brochures, catalogues and business portraits.
In 1983, Borlenghi won the Marian Skubin prize for the best sports picture published in Italy. For three years, he won the Marina di Pescara award for yachting in Italy. In Paris in 1986, he won the Grand Prix Professional de la photo de Mer organized by the French Chamber of Commerce.
He won the Omega Award in Italy for Best Sports Photographer in 2003. Four years later, he received the Grand Prix de l'Image Course au Large at the Paris boat show. The same year, Giorgio Napolitano, the Italian president, presented him with special recognition for his contributions to sailing. Several photographic exhibitions in galleries and museums followed as well, in both Milan and Paris.
Despite not knowing how to swim, he thrilled to the high, rough seas that the media boat encountered. Years later, he told the Italian sailing magazine Giornale della Vela, "I was worried, but at the same time I was also very excited and fascinated." He continued, "I believe that in my photographs, I'm able to emphasize the sea in a way that's different from many others, precisely because I fear it."
His friend, the journalist Magnus Wheatley, who wrote for the America's Cup, wrote:
What made Carlo exceptional was not simply technical brilliance, but an instinctive and deep rooted understanding of sailboat racing itself. He knew where the pressure would build on a start line, when the spray would explode from a bow, when a helmsman's glance revealed victory or defeat. His images carried movement, atmosphere and humanity in equal measure.
During the Covid pandemic, Borlenghi set up a temporary studio in the middle of Bellano and invited the town's residents to sit for a portrait. He photographed 1,800 people as part of the project, publishing a book of the portraits in Il Ritratto di Bellano (Portrait of Bellano) in 2022.
Borlenghi is survived by his wife Alessandra and his brother Luciano.