The Image of the Italian South Transmitted through Photographs and Travelogues (1860-1927)

Viviana Costagliola

Giorgio Sommer, Napoli, Veduta del Chiatamone e di Castel dell’Ovo (n. 1121), 1860–1890, Hamburg, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe

Giorgio Sommer, Napoli, Veduta del Chiatamone e di Castel dell’Ovo (n. 1121), 1860–1890, Hamburg, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe

This project aims to analyze the image and descriptions of the Italian South in photographs and travel guides from the unification of the country in 1860 to 1927 (the year of publication of the first Italian Touring Club’s guide dedicated to Southern Italy). The project has first adopted an internal perspective on Southern Italy, namely that of the intellectuals gravitating around the Società Napoletana di Storia Patria and the photographs largely taken by the same members of this cultural élite concerning the knowledge and protection of the artistic heritage of the Italian South. Second, the relationships were examined between foreign travel guides of Southern Italy (Bedeker, Murrey, Joanne), photographic production for tourism purposes, and postcards; in this manner, the focus shifted to the view from the outside, the expectations of travelers, and the effects on the local context for questions of self-representation. The last part of this project is about the photo archive of the Touring Club Italiano (TCI). The reasons for this choice lie in the impact of the TCI on a national level and the goals that the association set since its foundation (1894), i.e., touristic promotion and widespread knowledge of the Italian country. In this research, the TCI represents an external, Italian gaze on the Italian South.