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Albumen print
cm 22,3 x 16,5 | 8.8 x 6.5 in.
Photographer's credit stamp and code 3453 in pencil on the verso
Vincenzo Galdi (Naples, 1871 – Rome, 1961), thanks to his good looks, began working as a model at a very young age, posing primarily for Wilhelm von Plüschow, from whom he learned photographic techniques. He followed von Plüschow from Naples to Rome, where he opened his own studio near that of the German photographer. Using the adjacent terraces—screened from view by fabric hangings—he produced nude portraits, both male and, above all, female. Although he was the author of works of genuine artistic value, in 1907 Galdi was arrested and convicted for offending public morals, an event that led him to change careers. He went on to open an art gallery on Via del Babuino.
As a less well-known figure compared to his contemporaries von Gloeden and von Plüschow, Galdi has been less studied by critics, also due to the 19th-century custom of co-signing prints or even leaving them unsigned. As a result, his works were often attributed to von Plüschow, his former mentor, or grouped among the vast number of erotic photographs of the period.
cm 22,3 x 16,5 | 8.8 x 6.5 in.
Photographer's credit stamp and code 3453 in pencil on the verso
Vincenzo Galdi (Naples, 1871 – Rome, 1961), thanks to his good looks, began working as a model at a very young age, posing primarily for Wilhelm von Plüschow, from whom he learned photographic techniques. He followed von Plüschow from Naples to Rome, where he opened his own studio near that of the German photographer. Using the adjacent terraces—screened from view by fabric hangings—he produced nude portraits, both male and, above all, female. Although he was the author of works of genuine artistic value, in 1907 Galdi was arrested and convicted for offending public morals, an event that led him to change careers. He went on to open an art gallery on Via del Babuino.
As a less well-known figure compared to his contemporaries von Gloeden and von Plüschow, Galdi has been less studied by critics, also due to the 19th-century custom of co-signing prints or even leaving them unsigned. As a result, his works were often attributed to von Plüschow, his former mentor, or grouped among the vast number of erotic photographs of the period.
However, unlike much of that material, Galdi’s work stands out for the high quality of both the images and the prints. In this male nude, for example, one can observe his careful use of light, which casts subtle shadows, and above all the unusual posture of the subject, who does not face the camera but turns away from it, as if to avoid its gaze. The image clearly recalls classical painting, which, living in Rome, Galdi would have seen in the city’s museums and galleries.
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