History of urban landscape photography in Italy 1839-1914
The relationship between photography, architecture and urban views is as old as the invention of photography itself. The first ‘photographic’ image in history, dating back to 1826 or 1827, represents the view from a window of the family house in Niépce, the first daguerrotypes by Daguerre and the first calotypes by Talbot are urban views. Over the period considered, this relationship has developed and articulated itself thanks to the interpretative skills of photographers – elite pioneers, professionals, amateurs – and also by interacting with changes in taste and collective imagination. Pursuing a close interaction between texts and images, between historical reconstruction and critical reading of the works, the authors investigate the history of these relationships. Therefore a reference book but also a guide to knowing how to see photography. The images of Niépce, of Daguerre, of Talbot, have an enormous iconic value not only and not so much because they are the ‘first photographs’, but because they summarize better than the ocean of photographs that followed the revolutionary specificity of the photographic image. They are in fact a demonstration of the unprecedented fidelity of the image to reality and at the same time of the impossibility of total fidelity because a part of reality is altered. The ambiguities – the multiplication of the shadows brought in Niépce’s image – and the absences – the crowd of the boulevards in those of Daguerre and Talbot – remove degrees of fidelity to reality from the image and at the same time give it an aura. At the very moment in which reality is faithfully reproduced, the fact that it is partial and that it is immobilized for an instant constitutes a betrayal of it, or rather a transfiguration. The first photographers, who were mostly painter-photographers, understood this – some consciously, some unconsciously. And photography must rightly be considered an art because the essence of art is transfiguration, sublimation, absolutization of reality. What makes photography an extraordinary source of nourishment for the collective imagination is the fact that it not only reproduces the reality of forms, but that it produces a form of another reality. Giovanni Fanelli was born in Florence. He was full professor of History of Architecture at the University of Florence. He is the author of numerous works on urban history, the history of architecture, the history of graphics and the history of photography. In this last disciplinary field we highlight: Lucca, space and time from the nineteenth century to today, Lucca 1973 (with G. Bedini); Anton Hautmann. Florence in stereoscopy, Florence 1999; The soul of places. Tuscany in stereoscopic photography, Florence 2001; The image of Pisa in the work of Enrico Van Lint, pioneer of photography, Florence 2004; Tuscany disappeared. Through nineteenth and twentieth century photography, Florence 2005; Italy turns to gold. Through the photographs of Giorgio Sommer, Florence 2007; History of architectural photography, Rome-Bari 2009 (revised and expanded edition in French, Lausanne 2017); Robert Rive, Florence 2010 (with the collaboration of B. Mazza); La France près du coeur. Photographies en carte-de-visite 1854-1900, La Crèche 2010; Alphonse Bernoud, Florence 2012 (with B. Mazza); Paris animé, Paris instantane. Photographies stéréoscopiques 1850-1900, Lille-Rennes 2014 (with B. Mazza); Rome, Portrait of a City, Köln 2018; The ‘Bel Paese’ under a magnifying glass. Nineteenth century photographs, Florence 2019 (with B. Mazza). He was scientific director of the Ragghianti Foundation. He is co-director of the «Gli architects» and «Guide to modern architecture» series of Laterza Publishers. She is the curator of the website www.historyphotography.org. Barbara Mazza was born in Bolzano. She has a degree in Architecture and a PhD in History of Architecture and Urban Planning. Among his publications are: An ignored presence: Enrico Van Lint photographer in Lucca, «Quasar», n. 17, January-June 1997; Lucca, history of photography and history of the city, «Quasar», n. 19, 1998; Luigi Carrara ‘fin-de-siècle’ photographer in Lucca, «AFT», n. 29, 1999; The farmhouse in Tuscany. The photographs of Pier Niccolò Berardi at the 1936 Triennale, Florence 1999 (with G. Fanelli); Le Corbusier and photography. La vérité blanche, Florence 2002; Lucca, photographic iconography of the city, Lucca 2003 (with G. Fanelli); Ferrier père et fils, Ch. Soulier, photographic campaigns in Italy, «History of Urban Planning/ Tuscany», n. XII, 2007; Italy: in the mirror of photography in the 19th century: Le Grand Tour, Paris 2013 (with G. Fanelli); Daguerreotype and calotype. La restauration de Notre Dame de Paris, Florence 2019. He curated, in collaboration with others, some exhibitions and related catalogues. It is chargé de cours at Cergy Paris Université.