c‘It was once August Sander who in the 1920s planned the project of a “catalog of contemporary society” . Through portraits of German men and women of his time he worked to create a sort of encyclopaedia of images Men of the twentieth century (this is the title of the volume that collects some of them, published in 2012). The idea of a image census comes from there, and becomes reality, in Italy, in 2023. Thanks to FIAFItalian Federation of Photographic Associationswhich, in collaboration with ISTAT – National Institute of Statistics, presents the new national collective photographic project “Target Italy” on the occasion of its 75th year of activity.
The first photographic census of Italians is underway
Thanks to the support of over 550 FIAF-affiliated photographic circles and the attention of the Chair of Cultural and Social Anthropology of the University of Perugia, on 6 and 7 May 2023 throughout the peninsula there will be over 200 photographic sets set up to collect 30,000-50,000 portraits of Italians and thus create the widest choral fresco of the national population.
In three quarters of a century, since 1948, the year of its foundation, the FIAF has made the history of Italian amateur photography, also by monitoring and interpreting the various cultural processes experienced in the various historical phases. «The idea of the Federation is that photography is primarily a social event, an excellent tool for narrating the contemporary world where we are all protagonists, as users but also as an integral part of the representation», explains Roberto Rossi, FIAF President.
Objective Italy, the Fiaf project in collaboration with Istat
For this reason, to celebrate the 75th anniversary of its history, with Obiettivo Italia it wants «rto establish a photographic mosaic of Italians today for the communitymade by all of us, with tens of thousands of faces to look in the mirror as a country, thanks to photography».
In the wake of a consolidated genre such as the one inaugurated by Sander, and also relevant for disciplines such as Cultural and Social Anthropology, Sociology, Demography, Statistics, Obiettivo Italia will also be an exciting experience for those who will take part.
How the photographic portrait happens
In over 200 sets set up in squares and public places throughout Italy, each individual will be photographed according to a precise scheme and layout, repeated identically, with method and rigour. Front shot, shallow depth of field and essential setting. This is so that, in the absence of other visual distractions, «each subject can be placed precisely in the social fabric, becoming a piece of the final mosaic».
Simultaneously with the creation of the shots, random interviews will be administered, prepared by experts from various disciplines. The portraits collected for the photographic census project will be exhibited in a large installation scheduled for December 8, in Turin.
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