Full Description
This book explores the figure of Ghitta Carell (1899-1972), a Hungarian-born photographer who was naturalised Italian. Ghitta was born into a Jewish family of humble origins; at a very young age she moved to Italy, where she quickly became a very sought-after portrait photographer. Intellectuals, actors, generals, and political leaders posed in her studio in Rome, as well as famous women and members of royalty and the middle class.
Her black-and-white pictures were taken with a view camera: Ghitta crafted her photographs with mastery and delicacy, and thus created luminous and soft images, intervening through subtraction by removing the most superficial layers. This is how she achieved a kind of unmasking, thanks to which she restored not only the face but first and foremost the soul of those photographed. Ghitta Carell died in Haifa, Israel, leaving behind more than 50,000 plates now mostly dispersed.
Text in English and Hebrew.
Contents
Introduction - Maria Sica
'I create photos for posterity': Ghitta Carell's Life and Art - Roberto Dulio
Ghitta Carell's Hungarian Education - Norbert Orosz
An Artist and a Photographer Between Two Wars - Sabrina Spinazzè
Florence, Rome, Milan: The Places of Ghitta Carell's Professional Rise - Teresa Sacchi Lodispoto
Regime Aesthetics in Ghitta Carell's Photographs: Edda Ciano and Benito Mussolini - Alessandra Antola Swan
Ghitta Carell's Punctum - Ugo Volli
Ghitta Carell: An Exile's Vision - Nissan N. Perez
Ghitta Carell and Her Family: Memories of Hungary and Israel - Marina Trivella
Ghitta Carell: A Brief Biography - Roberto Dulio
Contributors
Acknowledgements
