The exhibition and the accompanying catalogue, mark the beginning of an invaluable collaboration between two of Italy’s leading public institutions concerned with the preservation, study and popularization of photography: the Fondazione Alinari per la Fotografia in Florence and Museo di Fotografia Contemporanea in Cinisello Balsamo, Milan.

The catalogue presents the wide selection of images from both collections displayed at the Scuderie del Quirinale in Rome (1 June – 3 September 2023). The works span a broad arc of time, which mirrors the history of photography: from the dawn of the art, with daguerreotypes, right up to the present, with the use of digital and 3D modelling technologies.

The chosen theme is the Italian landscape and how it has been represented in photography: from the first experiments in the 19th century to the evolution of its expressive language, visual codes and techniques. Over time photographers and artists, always open to experimentation and cross-fertilization, have expanded the concept of landscape by introducing immaterial aspects – psychological, poetic, political – through which it is constantly reinterpreted or reinvented.

The volume conveys the narrative of the exhibition, enlivened by a constant tension between an extraordinary past, when the Italian landscape was an exceptional blend of nature and culture, and a more recent history scarred by lacerations, rampant construction and aggressive interventions, fuelled by economic development and globalization. Studying the landscape and its transformations through the work of artists offers an opportunity to define a new Italian cultural identity. In recent years, in fact, photography has shown us a novel way of communicating the landscape, now often linked to collective commitment and ecological issues.

Italian and English edition, translations by Mark Eaton and Susan Ann White for Scriptum, Rome.