Mario Giacomelli (1925–2000) - Scanno 1957/59

Mario Giacomelli
Scanno, Abruzzo, approx. 1957–1959
Silver print
This intense image belongs to the famous series created by Mario Giacomelli in the Abruzzese village of Scanno at the end of the 1950s, one of the best-known and studied cycles of European photography in the second half of the twentieth century. In these photographs Giacomelli transforms the everyday life of the town into a strongly graphic and almost theatrical vision, built through radical contrasts between light and shadow.
The female figure in the foreground, wrapped in the traditional dark dress, emerges as an enigmatic and symbolic presence, while the group of men in the background defines the space of the scene with essential silhouettes. The result is a composition of great formal balance, where black and white becomes an expressive language and a visual structure.
Print made by Mario Giacomelli using the 1957 negative.
On the back: autograph signature of the author, stamp of the Mario Giacomelli Archive with cataloging code and archival authentication.