Hands, eyes and heart. In the beginning it was the fingers of Lisetta Carmi (Genoa, 15 February 1924 – Cisternino, 5 July 2022) that ran rising and falling over the black and white keys of a piano, with her bright eyes skimming from left to right along the keys, and a heart that beat in a single rhythm with the well-tempered keyboard. Then it was Lisetta Carmi’s fingers as photographer, fingers that wrote the lives of others through photography. Photographs of people, streets, docks, theaters, hospitals and cemeteries. Of death and sex: of humanity. The eyes and the heart, to understand others and herself. With love and friendship.

The volume is part of the series OILÀ, edited by Chiara Alessi, which presents the stories of women as protagonists of the twentieth century. Female figures on the Italian and international creative scene (from design to fashion, architecture, music, illustration, graphics, photography and literature) who have distinguished themselves in fields and professions that have always been considered a prerogative of men. The books, designed to be read aloud from beginning to end in forty-five minutes, are stories of people seen through a special lens that reveals their biographies, works, private lives and public achievements.

The graphic design is by Studio Sonnoli.