Italian Humanist Photography from Fascism to the Cold War

by Martina Caruso

Overview

Spanning four decades of radical political and social change in Italy, this interdisciplinary study explores photography’s relationship with Italian painting, film, literature, anthropological research and international photography. Evocative and powerful, Italian social documentary photography from the 1930s to the 1960s is a rich source of cultural history, reflecting a time of dramatic change. This book shows, through a wide range of images (some published for the first time) that to fully understand the photography of this period we must take a more expansive view than scholars have applied to date, considering issues of propaganda, aesthetics, religion, national identity and international influences. By setting Italian photography against a backdrop of social documentary and giving it a distinctive place in the global history of photography, this exciting volume of original research is of interest to art historians and scholars of Italian and visual culture studies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780367716493
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	08/02/2021
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Martina Caruso is Associate Lecturer in Photography and Contemporary Media Cultures, University of the Arts, London, UK. She also co-directs the Giulio Turcato Archives in Rome, Italy.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Situating Italian Humanist Photography1. Antifascist Photography under Fascism2. Photography, Power and Humiliation in the Second World War3. Christ Stopped at Eboli: An Anthropology of the South4. Humanist Photography and The 'Catholic' Family of ManFine (The End): La Dolce Vita and the Burst into TechnicolourBibliographyIndex

Editorial Reviews

"Caruso’s book represents innovative work in the field of visual culture. The richness of the material and the sophistication of the analysis create a remarkable set of new ways of thinking about the photography of the period. - Robert Lumley, Professor of Italian Cultural History, University College London, UK A welcome, imaginative reading of Italian photography that breaks new ground in a consolidated historiography of postwar neorealism and amnesia of the Fascist past. Through the lens of “humanist” photography, Caruso brilliantly situates the complex lineage of Italian photographic culture and proves its dynamic exchange across media and national boundaries." - Professor Maria Antonella Pelizzari, Hunter College and The Graduate Center, The City University of New York, USA

From the Publisher