“Viaggio al Sud” (Journey to the South): The Representation of Southern Italy in Photographic Reportage and Promotional Tourism Photography after World War II

Viviana Costagliola

Federico Patellani, Calabria, donna tra le macerie (woman in the rubble), silver bromide gelatin print, 1947. — Federico Patellani, *Calabria, donna tra le macerie (woman in the rubble)*, silver bromide gelatin print, 1947.

Federico Patellani, *Calabria, donna tra le macerie (woman in the rubble)*, silver bromide gelatin print, 1947.

This project aims first of all to sketch 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 Touring Club Italiano has undoubtedly been a key player in the history of images of Italy and has used photography as a documentary and interpretive tool of the country since its founding in 1894. Second, a comparison will be advanced between this photographic production and the related idea of the South that it conveys, and with Southern Italy as represented by photographers such as Federico Patellani, Piergiorgio Branzi, Fosco Maraini and Mario Carbone. These photographers between the 1950s and 1960s turned their gaze first on Matera – making it the symbol of a national identity that was in the process of being constructed and that took precisely the South as its starting point – and then on the rest of Southern Italy. Special attention will be given to Patellani’s “Journey to the South” and the photographic reportage he compiled following the 1947 earthquake in Calabria.