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Gelatin silver print, printed in 1980s
cm 22,5 x 29 | 8.8 x 11.4 in.
Photographer's credit stamp on the verso
For six years starting in 1965 Lisetta Carmi closely followed the community of transvestites living in Genoa's former Jewish ghetto around Via del Campo. She established friendly relations with those people even before she photographed them for a book, I travestiti, which would be published in 1972 by Essedi Editions and would be opposed not only by conservative circles but also viewed with suspicion by the “friendly fire” of certain bigoted leftists. These two portraits-which appear on pages 80 and 121 of the volume-are an important testimony to the relationship that bound the photographer to her subjects: if in one case there appears a joyful display in front of the lens, in the one featuring Lo Spagnolo there is an intimacy highlighted by the politeness with which she shows off the photographs she intends to share. The shadow shrouding the subject is a stylistic choice that is used to emphasize the situation by making the figure emerge from the darkness: Lisetta Carmi's previous experience as a theater photographer is felt here.
cm 22,5 x 29 | 8.8 x 11.4 in.
Photographer's credit stamp on the verso
Literature
L. Carmi, I Travestiti, Essedi Editrice, Genova, 1972, p. 80
Lisetta Carmi (Genoa 1924 – Cisternino, Brindisi 2022) forced by racial laws to leave high school devoted herself to the study of the piano with outstanding teachers and, after graduating from the Conservatory of Milan, began a brilliant concert career in the postwar period, which she interrupted in 1960 to devote herself to her “second life” first as a stage photographer and then as a reporter in Genoa (her work on camalli and transvestites is famous), Paris, Ireland, Israel, and India. Here she met yoga master Babaij and in 1979 began her “third life” by founding Bhole Baba ashram in Cisternino, Puglia. For six years starting in 1965 Lisetta Carmi closely followed the community of transvestites living in Genoa's former Jewish ghetto around Via del Campo. She established friendly relations with those people even before she photographed them for a book, I travestiti, which would be published in 1972 by Essedi Editions and would be opposed not only by conservative circles but also viewed with suspicion by the “friendly fire” of certain bigoted leftists. These two portraits-which appear on pages 80 and 121 of the volume-are an important testimony to the relationship that bound the photographer to her subjects: if in one case there appears a joyful display in front of the lens, in the one featuring Lo Spagnolo there is an intimacy highlighted by the politeness with which she shows off the photographs she intends to share. The shadow shrouding the subject is a stylistic choice that is used to emphasize the situation by making the figure emerge from the darkness: Lisetta Carmi's previous experience as a theater photographer is felt here.
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