Martina Caruso - Italian Humanist Photography from Fascism to the Cold War

ITALIAN HUMANIST PHOTOGRAPHY FROM FASCISM TO THE COLD WAR

ITALIAN HUMANIST PHOTOGRAPHY FROM FASCISM TO THE COLD WAR

Martina Caruso

Bloomsbury Academic

An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Contents

I would like to thank, first and foremost, Sarah Wilson at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, who originally supervised the thesis from which this book was inspired. I am much indebted to her for her uncanny insights, joie de vivre, and breadth of knowledge and for insisting on the use of the key term humanist within an Italian context, thereby opening up unexpected and engaging worlds of thought and immeasurably enriching my research. I am grateful to Stephen Gundle and Bob Lumley for their encouragement and thoughts on the original thesis from which this book was generated. This publication was made possible by a grant from the Scouloudi Foundation in association with the Institute of Historical Research.

The timely decision to undertake this project meant that I was still able to interview some of the surviving photographers who were practicing in the 1940s and 1950s. For these exchanges, I would like to thank Giggi Bacci, Piergiorgio Branzi, Mario Carrieri, Cesare Colombo, Paolo Di Paolo, Gianni Berengo Gardin, Mario Carbone, Elio Ciol, Vittorugo Contino, Caio Mario Garrubba, Giorgio Giacobbi, Pepi Merisio, Nino Migliori, Fulvio Roiter, Chiara Samugheo, Italo Zannier, and Arturo Zavattini. The moments spent with vivacious, often politically engaged, elderly Italian photographers contributed an invaluable voice to my work.

Fellow academics, archivists, and collectors were very helpful, and I would especially like to thank Marco Andreani, Carmela Biscaglia, Pierangelo Cavanna, Cosimo Chiarelli, Gabriele DAutilia, Riccardo De Antonis, Marco Delogu, Andrea Jemolo, Manfredo Manfroi and his friendly team at La Gondola camera club, Diego Mormorio, Carole Naggar, Claudio Pastrone, Maria Antonella Pelizzari, Max Renkel, Marcello Sparaventi, Ennery Taramelli, Enrica Vigan, and Cecilia Winterhalter. Special thanks go to Giuseppe Pinna whose vast knowledge of the topic and sound advice guided me throughout my research, while Guido Bertero gave me access to his rich collection of Italian photography in Turin, supplying me with lively encouragement and crucial primary material. Cesare Colombo helped me by sharing his precious knowledge of photographers and their heirs.

Heartfelt thanks go to my friends and colleagues who have read my work critically or have discussed the ideas in it. They are Julia Bischoff, David Broder, Kevin and Meredith Brown, Jacopo Galimberti, Flora and Ed Hayes, Pericle Guaglianone, Thomas Hodgkinson, Christopher Hydal, Clare MacDonald, Phoebe and Mungo McCosh, Daniel Metcalfe, Gil Pasternak, Ilaria Puri Purini, Alice Riegler, Olga Smith, Christian Goeschel, Lindsay Harris, Sara Knelman, Alexandra Tommasini, and David Spero. I am grateful to the Ph groupa postgraduate photography research networkfor creating a sense of the bigger picture on photographic research in the United Kingdom. I am also grateful to Michele Senoner for his unstinting hospitality and good company during the many times I stayed with him in Milan. Ginevra Sanfelice Lillis presence and support during the rewriting period in Rome was invaluable.

My greatest thanks go to my sister, Emily, whom I will never be able to thank enough for patiently reading through my work at its early stages and for our stimulating exchanges. I would also like to thank my father, Ettore, for inspiring in me a fascination with Italian twentieth-century culture and my mother, Barbara, and grandfather, Derek, who always encouraged me.

I was lucky to be given access to private libraries belonging to Ester Coen, Diego Mormorio, and Giuseppe Pinna, whose collections include books and periodicals that cannot be traced in public institutions and who generously shared their knowledge with me. Research was also conducted through informal conversations with photography dealers and gallery owners, including Giuseppe Casetti (Museo del Louvre) and Matteo Di Castro (s.t. gallery) in Rome.

This book is dedicated to all the above as well as those not mentioned, who inspired me to complete it.

Everybody in Italy is a Marxist, just as everybody in Italy is a Catholic.

PIER PAOLO PASOLINI

In Italy the fascists are divided into two categories: the fascists and the antifascists.

ENNIO FLAIANO

Henri Cartier-Bresson, Abruzzo, Scanno , 1951 Henri Cartier-Bresson/Magnum Photos.

Mario Giacomelli, Scanno , 19571959 Simone Giacomelli. Courtesy of the Archivio Mario Giacomelli Senigallia.

Paul Strand, The Family, Luzzara, Italy , 1953 published in P. Strand and C. Zavattini, Un Paese (Torino: Einaudi, 1955) Aperture Foundation Inc., Paul Strand Archive.

Gianni Berengo Gardin, Untitled , c. 1975, Un paese ventanni dopo , 1975 Gianni Berengo Gardin. Courtesy of the photographer.

Leonard Freed, Naples , 1956 Leonard Freed/Magnum Photos.

Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo, Woman with child ( Donna con bambino ), silver bromide gelatin, 189698 published in A. Scotti ed., Il Quarto Stato/Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo (Milano: Mazzotta, 1976). Courtesy of Associazione Pellizza da Volpedo.

Achille Bologna, Poster for The Exhibition of the Fascist Revolution , 1932. Courtesy Fondazione Micheletti. Museo dellIndustria e del Lavoro di Brescia.

Achille Bologna, First heartache ( Primo dolore ), in Luci ed ombre: annuario della fotografia artistica italiana , exhibition catalogue (Turin, 1924), p. XXX.

School room ( Interno di una scuola ), LItalia Fascista in Cammino , 1932. Source: Biblioteca di storia moderna e contemporanea, Rome.

Adolfo Porry-Pastorel, Rome. 31 August 1931. New ONB recruits in an Opera Nazionale Balilla campsite on the periphery of the capital ( Roma, 3 agosto 1931. Nuove reclute dellOpera Nazionale Balilla in un campeggio dellOpera Nazionale Balilla alla periferia della capitale ), T. Farabola, Farabola: un archivio italiano (Milan, 1980), p. 14.

Luciano Ridenti, Rice is wheat ( Il riso frumento ), Tempo , 8 (July 20, 1939), pp. 1217. Courtesy of the Biblioteca Comunale Centrale Palazzo Sormani, Milan.

Anon., New Women of Orvieto ( Donne Nuove a Orvieto ), Tempo , 10 (August 3, 1939), pp. 1014. Courtesy of the Biblioteca Comunale Centrale Palazzo Sormani, Milano.

Domenico Riccardo Peretti Griva, Mother ( Madre ), ante-1933, silver bromide gelatin transferred onto paper, Coll. Museo Nazionale del Cinema, Fondo M. T. Peretti Griva and G. Galante Garrone, Turin.

Carlo Levi, Child with goats head , ( Bambino con testa di capretto ), c.19351936, Christ Stopped at Eboli (Einaudi: Torino, 1945) Carlo Levi, Raffealla Acetoso, by SIAE 2015.

Anon., Monteponi Miners ( Minatori della Monteponi ) and Interior of a shop in Macomer ( Interno duna bottega a Macomer ), Giuseppe Dess, Appunti per un ritratto..., Primato (April 1, 1940), pp. 23. Source: Biblioteca di storia moderna e contemporanea, Rome.

Leo Longanesi, The Italians of the CrisisExamples of Style ( Gli italiani della crisiEsempi di stile ), LItaliano (April 1932). Source: Biblioteca di storia moderna e contemporanea, Rome.

Anon./Leo Longanesi, Untitled , in The Custodian of Napoleons House (Il custode della casa di Napoleone) di Stella Nera, LItaliano , a. 7 n. 16 (December 1932). Source: Biblioteca nazionale di Roma.

Cesare Barzacchi, Leo Longanesi , 1942 Marco Barzacchi.

Cesare Barzacchi, Little Gypsy Girl and Parrot ( Zingarella e pappagallo ), 1938 Marco Barzacchi.