Mantegazza e la fotografia. Un’antologia di immagini

Mantegazza's relationship with photography was certainly very intense and profitable although it was not without contradictions. Presenting a selection of photographs which Mantegazza made and collected during his studies (today found in the historical photography archive of the Museo Nazionale di Antropologia e Etnologia (National Museum of Anthropology) in Florence, the essay emphasizes the different ways that the photography was used to study physiology (the studies of the expression of pain), anthropology (Lapland and India) and ethnology (Italy). It also highlights Mantegazza's level of critical and methodological knowledge that he acquired in the operative procedure, representing his most important contribution to the modern discipline of visual anthropology, which has taken a more important position than that relating to the history of 19th century Italian photography.