Cambridge Scholars Publishing Photography as Power: Dominance and Resistance through the Italian Lens

Enriched with an introduction by David Forgacs, this book explores the complex relationship between photography and power in its various manifestations in Italian history throughout the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries. How did the Italian state employ the medium of photography as an instrument of dominance? In which ways has photography been used as a critical medium to resist hegemonic discourses? Taking into account published and unpublished images from professional photographers such as Letizia Battaglia, Tano D’Amico and Mario Cresci and non-professional photographers, artists, photo-reporters, and war soldiers, as well as social scientists and criminologists, such as Cesare Lombroso, this book unfolds the operations of power that lay behind the apparent objectivity of the photographic frame. Some essays in this volume discuss the use of photography in national and colonial discourses, as well as its employment in constructing images of power from war propaganda and fascism to public personas like Benito Mussolini and Silvio Berlusconi. Other contributions examine the ways in which the medium has been employed to create counter-hegemonic discourses, from the Resistance and the years of lead up to the contemporary times. Among the contributors to this volume are major international scholars on Italian photography such as Gabriele D’Autilia, Nicoletta Leonardi and Pasquale Verdicchio. About the Author Marco Andreani is an independent scholar. His areas of research interests include theories in photography and the relationship between photographs and the written text, with particular attention to the Italian post-war period and 1930s illustrated magazines. In 2006, he co-edited and translated Jean Marie Schaeffer’s L’image précaire into Italian. In 2009, he obtained his PhD from the University of Parma, Italy. He has written various entries on Italian photographers for Treccani’s Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani. Nicoletta Pazzaglia is Visiting Assistant Professor of Italian at Miami University, USA. Her research focuses on the interrelation between literature, photography and theater with social sciences, medical and psychoanalytic discourse across time and national boundaries. Her publications include “Ruzantine Influences on the Theater of Shakespeare: Launce and Launcelot Inspired by Ruzante’s Peasant?” (2013); “Angelo Beolco: dall'enigma della sopravvivenza all'estetica dei lazzi” (2011); and “Il linguaggio del corpo nella ‘voragine’ della Terra Santa di Alda Merini” (2011).