This publication features a selection of photographs by Lisetta Carmi,
documenting the social transformations of Genoa during the 1960s. Carmi
witnessed the economic boom of the city, but also its everyday life,
including her famous photo series of transvestites which
caused a scandal at the time.
Over the course of the 1960s, Genoa underwent a radical transformation
process, due to the reconstruction in the wake of the bombing suffered
during WWII and the euphoria linked to the economic boom. Lisetta Carmi
was there, and despite being Genovese herself, she manages to portray the
city with the gaze of an “outsider”. And so in her photographs, we come
across the breath of the port, the alleyways of the old town, the traces
of the war, the cemetery of Staglieno, but also everyday life with
children playing in the street, adolescents taking up rock and roll, right
up to her famous photos of transvestites which caused a scandal at the
time, and which today show us the great empathy between the photographer
and the photographed. The book is at the same time a demonstration of
Lisetta Carmi's photographic research and a document depicting a Genoa
which is no more, and which is brought back to life here in her harsh
black and white. The accompanying texts are provided by Giuliano Scabia,
Giovanni Battista Martini and Giovanna Calvenzi.
New edition of the book published in 2019 (ISBN 978-88-99385-64-4).
Lisetta Carmi (1924-2022) was "a wandering soul:" concert pianist,
traveller and founder of a meditation community in Apulia. She was also a
freelance photographer who, in her works of documentation and social
condemnation, anticipated a great deal of "real-life" photography of the
1970s. Over recent years, major retrospectives of her work have been held,
including that in Palazzo Ducale in Genoa.
