Born in Milano in 1946, Roberto live in Milano and Rome. He started making photographs in the Sixties, when, for a dozen years, He took photographs in over a hundred jazz concerts.

Being the son of Arrigo Polillo, a well known jazz critic, historian and concert organizer, Roberto had the unique opportunity of building a fairly complete gallery of the most important jazz musicians of the time. These images are well known, and have been shown in many personal exhibitions, books, and magazines.