“Viaggio al Sud”. The Representation of Southern Italy in Photographic Reportage and in Tourism Promotion Photography after World War II

Viviana Costagliola, Ph.D.

This project aims to sketch, on the one hand, the characteristics of the southern landscape conveyed by the photographic and editorial activities promoted by the Italian Touring Club, examining a selection of articles published in Le Vie d'Italia from 1959 to 1967 and the volumes of the series Attraverso l'Italia dedicated to the south of the country. The Italian Touring Club has undoubtedly been a critical player in the history of images of Italy and has used photography as a documentary and interpretive tool of the country since its founding (1894).
On the other hand, a comparison will be advanced between this photographic production and the related idea of the Italian South it conveys, and with that of Mezzogiorno represented by photographers such as Federico Patellani, Piergiorgio Branzi, Fosco Maraini, and Mario Carbone. Between the 1950s and 1960s, these photographers turned their gaze first on Matera – making it the symbol of a national identity to be reconstructed, starting precisely from the South – and then on the rest of Southern Italy. Particular attention will be paid to F. Patellan‘s "Viaggio al Sud" and his photographic reportage following the 1947 earthquake in Calabria.