Photographer and writer Carla Cerati (1926-2016) captures the architectural, social and political upheavals of 1960-70s Milan.
Milan 1963: the economic boom quickens the pulse of the city. Carla Cerati records the changes underway: from the Central Station, emigrants spread out towards the suburbs. New neighbourhoods and new habits are formed. Milan becomes the capital of consumerism, with department stores preaching a different way of life. But there is also the city that practises the unchanging ritual of La Scala, and a new bourgeoisie depicted at inaugurations and cocktail parties. Then comes the great political season, with student demonstrations and workers walking out of the factories in protest. Her photographs thus took on a more social and political slant. The funeral of Roberto Franceschi in 1973 was to mark the close of a fervent period that has now become legendary. Through her photographs, Carla Cerati served as one of its key eyewitnesses.
Giovanna Calvenzi is photoeditor and contributes to several Italian periodicals. Since 2012 she has been an image consultant for Periodici San Paolo. She teaches photo-editing and studies contemporary photography.
Giorgio Fontana is an Italian writer. He published his debut novel in 2007 Buoni propositi per l'anno nuovo, which was followed in 2008 by Novalis. In 2014, he won the Campiello Prize with Morte di un uomo felice. He holds a course in digital writing at Scuola Holden, and collaborates with Il Sole 24 ore, IL and La le#ura of Corriere della Sera.
Carla Cerati (1926-2016), originally from Bergamo, arrived in Milan in 1952. She began photographing the city in 1960, first the artistic-cultural world, then covering the full range of its manifestations. Her books include Morire di classe (1969), a famous investigation into mental hospitals carried out with Gianni Berengo Gardin, and Mondo Cocktail (1974). She was also a talented writer.
