HIGHLY IMPRESSIVE PHOTOBOOK by Carla Cerati and Gianni Berengo Gardin - in the VERY SCARCE FIRST PRINTING from 1969. The year of the publication (there were later printings also) you can easily see at the top right corner of the front cover, so - without doubt - the copy i am offering here is a first printing. Martin Parr, Gerry Badger, The photobook, vol 2, page 246. VERY FRESH CONDITION. THIS IS THE LAST EXCLUSIVE PHOTOBOOK AUCTION by 5Uhr30.com in 2025 - with more than 100 great lots from my personal collection and from recent acquisitions. As Parr and Badger point out, these photographs could have been taken almost anywhere - even today - in those countries where the mentally ill are confined to institutions, allowing society to forget about them. As is well known, thanks to Law 180, strongly promoted by Basaglia, the situation changed radically: it regulated compulsory medical treatment and established mental health services. Italy was the first country in the world to abolish mental asylums - perhaps also thanks to books like this one. When dealing with such delicate subjects, “there is a fine line between revelation and exploitation, between compassion and prurient excitement. That line is not crossed here” (see Parr/Badger). Undoubtedly, the images do not seek to provoke morbid emotions in the viewer but instead depict illness with compassion and respect. The material on which they are printed, unlike that of most photobooks, is not glossy but matte paper - almost as if to soften, to avoid emphasizing. Even more interesting, however, is the layout, which features repeated images, both in sequence and after several pages. This is not merely a graphic choice: repetition indelibly fixes in the memory what one might wish to remove, but which can no longer be ignored. Like always 5Uhr30.com guarantees detailed and accurate descriptions, 100% transport protection, 100% transport insurance, and of course, combined shipping - worldwide. “At the end of this process of dehumanization, the patient who had been entrusted to the psychiatric institution to be cured no longer exists: absorbed and incorporated into the rules that determine him. He is a closed case. Irreversibly labeled, he will no longer be able to erase the mark that has defined him as something beyond the human, with no possibility of appeal.” (text on the front cover of the book) Giulio Einaudi Editore, Turin, 1969. First edition, first printing. Paperback (as issued). 240 x 180 cm. 88 pages. 62 black and white photographs. Photographs by Carla Cerati and Gianni Berengo Gardin. Text by Franco Basaglia and Franca Basaglia Ongaro. Text in italian. Condition: Inside excellent, very fresh and flawless; clean with no marks and with no foxing. Outside with fresh, well-preserved covers (much better than usual), only the rear side with marginal crease (nearly impossible to see and with no consequence for inside); spine lightly sunned (like so often). Overall fine, better and fresher than usual condition. Outstanding Italian photobook classic in the very scarce first printing - in great condition. 5Uhr30.com says MANY THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT THIS YEAR - making our single-seller photobook auctions on Catawiki so successful. Ecki Heuser & team are wishing ALL THE BEST TO YOU AND YOURS for 2026.