Description
TitleOverexposing Florence
Date Created2018
Other Date2018-10 (degree)
Extent1 online resource (305 pages : illustrations)
DescriptionThis dissertation examines the many ways in which urban form and visual media interact in 19th-, 20th-, and 21st-centuries Florence. More in detail, this work analyzes photographs of Florence’s medieval and Renaissance heritage by the Alinari Brothers atelier (1852-1890), and then retraces these photographs’ relationship to contemporary visual culture – namely through representations of Florence in international cinema, art photography, and the guidebook – as well as to the city’s actual structure. Unlike previous scholarship, my research places the Alinari Brothers’ photographs in the context of the enigmatic processes of urban modernization that took place in Florence throughout the 19th century, changing its medieval structure into that of a modern city and the capital of newly unified Italy from 1865 to 1871. The Alinari photographs’ tension between the establishment of the myth of Florence as the cradle of the Renaissance and an uneasy attitude towards modernization, both cherished and feared, produced a multi-layered city portrait, which raises questions about crucial issues such as urban heritage preservation, mass tourism, (de)industrialization, social segregation, and real estate speculation. These questions remain unresolved in contemporary Florence, and my dissertation explores them by following the influence of the Alinari’s photographic gaze on contemporary representations of Florence in international cinema (Brian De Palma, Dario Argento, James Ivory, Ridley Scott), art and tourism photography (Gianni Berengo Gardin, Luigi Ghirri, Olivo Barbieri, Martin Parr, guidebooks by Italian Touring Club, Fodor and Frommer), and their relationship to contemporary urban development. Ultimately, my work aims to redefine the relevance of early photography as a unique tool for understanding contemporary urban space and its representation, thanks to its capacity to expose the contradictions of the present and look into the city’s future.
NotePh.D.
NoteIncludes bibliographical references
Noteby Donata Panizza
Genretheses, ETD doctoral
Languageeng
CollectionSchool of Graduate Studies Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Organization NameRutgers, The State University of New Jersey
RightsThe author owns the copyright to this work.