Un paese di Paul Strand e di Cesare Zavattini: genesi e lettura di un fototesto italiano

Abstract

Thanks to the dialogue between the American photographer Paul Strand and Cesare Zavattini, who has been one of the most relevant exponent of Italian neorealism, in 1955 was published Un paese, first volume of the series «Italia mia» edited by Einaudi. Oscillating between the ‘shooting’ of landcapes, faces, objects and oral testimonies, the book recognize in Luzzara, the Zavattini’s hometown, a privileged observation point of rural culture «un attimo prima della sua completa scomparsa» (Russo, 2011). Memories related to the Second World War, the indissoluble bond with the land, difficulties of daily life are thus entrusted, in a experimental way, to a close interaction between words and images, not to the documentary genre. Considering also the respective backgrounds of the authors, the article focuses on this verbal and visual interplay –located in pages that are the only media support –and on recent critical proposalson phototexts