1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910427859703321

Autore

Swan Alessandra Antola

Titolo

Photographing Mussolini : the making of a political icon / / Alessandra Antola Swan

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cham, Switzerland : , : Springer : , : Palgrave Macmillan, , [2020]

©2020

ISBN

3-030-56506-8

Edizione

[1st ed. 2020.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (XX, 393 p. 102 illus., 40 illus. in color.)

Collana

Italian and Italian American Studies, , 2635-2931

Disciplina

945.091092

Soggetti

Portrait photography

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

1. Introduction -- Part I: Setting the Scene -- 2. The photograph as a source and agent of history -- 3. Images in politics before Mussolini -- Part II: Production -- 4. The image makers of the Duce -- 5. The corporate image: Istituto Luce -- 6. The press-image: photojournalists and agencies -- 7. The aesthetic image: Ghitta Carell -- Part III: Audiencing -- 8. The visual presence of the Duce -- 9. Mussolini’s early photographs -- 10. Mussolini’s photogenic charisma -- 11. The emotional appeal -- 12. Marketing Mussolini -- 13. Conclusion.

Sommario/riassunto

This pioneering book offers the first account of the work of the photographers, both official and freelance, who contributed to the forging of Mussolini's image. It departs from the practice of using photographs purely for illustration and places them instead at the centre of the analysis. Throughout the 1930s photographs of the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini were chosen with much care by the regime. They were deployed to highlight those physical traits - the piercing eyes, protruding jaw, shaved head - that were meant to evoke the Duce's strength, determination and innate sense of leadership in the mind of his contemporaries. The chapters in this volume explore the photographic image in the socio-political context of the time and shows how it was a significant contributor to the development of Italian mass culture between the two world wars.