His father Vincenzo was one of the descendants of an ancient Italian noble house with title of baron, one of whose ancestors was a Norman knight, who participated in liberation of Salerno from the Saracens.

He belonged to a branch, which in the middle of the eighteenth century had settled in Marigliano and inherited the title of Castelan of Ischia and Procida, as well as Lord of Corleone in Sicily.

Starting from 1887, and until 1890, the young Galdi also worked in theater as a set designer, instrumentalist and actor with the Eduardo Scarpetta's company and then with Alberto Cozzella and Vincenzo Esposito.

But the economic default of the former Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and the decline of Naples art scene led Galdi to leave his homeland and move to Rome with Guglielmo Plüschow.

[3] When he arrived in Rome in 1890, Galdi bought a penthouse with terrace on Via Sardegna 55 in the new Ludovisi district, still suburban at that time, where he was going to live with her older sister Eutilia.

He opened a studio on Via Campania 45 – not far from his apartment – specializing in feminine and masculine nude art, becoming soon the most well-known author of the time in that genre after von Gloeden and Plüschow.

This fact is documented by a letter by Theodore F. Dwight, director of the Boston Public Library, sent in January 1896 in which he described his visit to the studio of the photographer: "Plüschow was not present in person, but his assistant was and I was given every pleasure to see his collection, apparently without you expecting me to buy it.

While we were talking, the beautiful Italian, with black hair and mustache, a rather vigorous build and wide shoulders, over the age of 24, who seemed anxious to be to noted and acted as a master of the place?

Among the photographs attributed to Galdi are a series of shots commissioned by English painter Robert Hawthorn Kitson, depicting Carlo, his young lover from Taormina, whom he adopted.

[citation needed] When the sculptor Mario Rutelli received a commission to renew the 'Naiads fountain' on Piazza della Repubblica he collaborated with Galdi.

The question was raised at the session of the City Council, during which some clerics and conservative opponents, offended by the proud nudity of the naiads, asked the Mayor for immediate removal of the statues from the fountain.

All ended up in the press with Avanti defending the sculptures and L'Osservatore Romano judging them as "a gross", criticizing them sharply from an artistic and moral point of view.

He started the art trade with organizing exhibition and selling futurist works of Giacomo Balla and Umberto Boccioni with help of Anton Giulio Bragaglia and his brothers.