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The twentieth century saw the maturing of photography as an art and its definitive entry into contemporary culture. There were three significant…

The twentieth century saw the maturing of photography as an art and its definitive entry into contemporary culture. There were three significant moments in this journey: the period of the historic avant-garde movements, which highlighted the relativity of the relationship between image and reality; the nineteen sixties and seventies, when photography abandoned its narrative function and became a work tool for artists; and the nineties, which saw confirmation of the strong sense of invention in photography, a quality used in advertising and contemporary art.

The texts in this publication, which were written between 1983 and 2003, touch many theoretical and historical questions and create a set of discussion papers having a number of objectives: on the one hand, the theories and trends of photography in the last thirty years, the crisis in historical reportage, the reading of contemporary landscape, the changes in the relationship between image and reality as a consequence of the digital world; on the other hand, the relationship between photography and public commissions as an element that gives structure to the very codes of photographic production; and finally, some fundamental moments (and problems) in the history and culture of twentieth-century Italian photography.

The publication is an invaluable tool for learning and reflection for students, specialists, enthusiasts and anyone who wishes to explore photography as a complex theoretical subject and as an artistic form in tune with contemporary reality.

Roberta Valtorta (Milan, 1952), historian and photography critic, is Scientific Director of the Contemporary Photography Museum of Cinisello Balsamo-Milan. For more than twenty years she has been curating exhibitions and has been a professor at the Riccardo Bauer-ex Umanitaria Professional Learning Centre in Milan. She has explored, in particular, the relationship between photography and other forms of art, photography as a tool for reading contemporary landscape, public patronage, and photography as a cultural good. She has published many books on themes in figures in twentieth-century photography, including: Paolo Monti. Laboratorio ossolano (1985); Mimmo Jodice. Tempo interiore (1993); Gabriele Basilico. L’esperienza dei luoghi (1994); Paolo Gioli. Fotografia grafica dipinti film (1996); 1987-1997 Archivio dello spazio (1997); Pagine di fotografia italiana, 1900-1998 (1998); La catalogazione della fotografia/La documentazione fotografica dei beni culturali (2003); È contemporanea la fotografia? (2004).

 

The book is available at the Skira bookstore in via Torino 61 in Milan and from 11 May 2005 in all Italian bookstores.