Photographic exhibit "Garda panoramique. Immagini di Giovanni Negri, 1900-1910"
11/6/2022 - 11/9/2022 10:00 a.m.
Lonato Castle
Lonato Castle
From 11 June to 7 August, the Rocca di Lonato del Garda (Bs) will host Garda panoramique, a photographic exhibition realised by the Negri Foundation, which has selected for the occasion 25 images taken by the Brescian photographer Giovanni Negri in the main towns of Lake Garda in the very early 20th century.
The shots, with a format of 30×80 cm, were taken with a special French camera, whose characteristic is that it can shoot at an angle of 180° while maintaining the perspective lines in the frame almost unchanged. Purchased personally by Giovanni Negri in Paris from the manufacturer, the camera would be used by him for a special tour of Italy, aimed at taking several hundred images mainly for the Italian Touring Club magazine with which he collaborated. A characteristic feature of the camera was that it had a rotating lens, which framed successive portions of the image, fixing it on a 10×30 cm film positioned inside the camera, according to a curved pattern that corrected the deformations typical of wide-angle lenses.
The images chosen for the exhibition at the Rocca di Lonato are part of a larger photographic documentation preserved by the Negri Foundation of Brescia: more than 1,500 shots, taken along the entire perimeter of Lake Garda, which also document life and activities in a historical period that saw tourism become a fundamental theme for the economy of the area.
Giovanni Negri was one of the protagonists of photography between the 19th and 20th centuries. Born in Pavia in 1865, at the age of 23 he moved to Brescia where he opened his first photography studio, destined to become one of the most important in Brescia. In 1895, his 'Album di vedute di laghi italiani' (Garda, Como, Iseo and Maggiore), received praise from the Savoys. His equipment was particularly avant-garde and allowed him to produce panoramic and stereoscopic views. From the beginning of the 20th century, he devoted himself to documenting industry, which became one of his studio's main activities. In 1909, he had a studio-house built by Engineer Egidio Dabbeni in what is now Via Calatafimi, Brescia. His son Umberto collaborated with him. He died in Gargnano in 1919.
After the previous exhibitions dedicated to Giovanni Tagliaferri's photographic collection, with this review the Fondazione Ugo Da Como in Lonato del Garda (in whose monumental complex is the Rocca Visconteo Veneta, a National Monument) continues to highlight the theme of period photography. The nineteenth and twentieth century period is closely linked to the activity of the Institution founded by Senator Ugo Da Como (1869-1941) and the exhibition opportunities dedicated to photography are also conceived to promote the Brescian history and territory.
The exhibition is set up in the Casa del Capitano and is open to the public every day from 10 am to 5 pm.
The shots, with a format of 30×80 cm, were taken with a special French camera, whose characteristic is that it can shoot at an angle of 180° while maintaining the perspective lines in the frame almost unchanged. Purchased personally by Giovanni Negri in Paris from the manufacturer, the camera would be used by him for a special tour of Italy, aimed at taking several hundred images mainly for the Italian Touring Club magazine with which he collaborated. A characteristic feature of the camera was that it had a rotating lens, which framed successive portions of the image, fixing it on a 10×30 cm film positioned inside the camera, according to a curved pattern that corrected the deformations typical of wide-angle lenses.
The images chosen for the exhibition at the Rocca di Lonato are part of a larger photographic documentation preserved by the Negri Foundation of Brescia: more than 1,500 shots, taken along the entire perimeter of Lake Garda, which also document life and activities in a historical period that saw tourism become a fundamental theme for the economy of the area.
Giovanni Negri was one of the protagonists of photography between the 19th and 20th centuries. Born in Pavia in 1865, at the age of 23 he moved to Brescia where he opened his first photography studio, destined to become one of the most important in Brescia. In 1895, his 'Album di vedute di laghi italiani' (Garda, Como, Iseo and Maggiore), received praise from the Savoys. His equipment was particularly avant-garde and allowed him to produce panoramic and stereoscopic views. From the beginning of the 20th century, he devoted himself to documenting industry, which became one of his studio's main activities. In 1909, he had a studio-house built by Engineer Egidio Dabbeni in what is now Via Calatafimi, Brescia. His son Umberto collaborated with him. He died in Gargnano in 1919.
After the previous exhibitions dedicated to Giovanni Tagliaferri's photographic collection, with this review the Fondazione Ugo Da Como in Lonato del Garda (in whose monumental complex is the Rocca Visconteo Veneta, a National Monument) continues to highlight the theme of period photography. The nineteenth and twentieth century period is closely linked to the activity of the Institution founded by Senator Ugo Da Como (1869-1941) and the exhibition opportunities dedicated to photography are also conceived to promote the Brescian history and territory.
The exhibition is set up in the Casa del Capitano and is open to the public every day from 10 am to 5 pm.
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