Mettiamo tutto a fuoco! Manuale eversivo di fotografia – F. augugliaro, D. Guidi, A. Jesolo, A. Manni

We couldn’t miss a subversive manual of photography directly from the 70s.
In 1978 the audacious and politically incorrect publisher Savelli released a wonderful resistance handbook disguised as photographic handbook. The title is ‘Messa a Fuoco’, which literally means ‘Focusing’ , but also ‘Setting on fire’ and the book is divided into four chapters: “Fundamental Premises”: techniques, equipment and anything else in the technical field…
“Photography and Society”: concerning the question of languages and style, clearly addressing Gisèle Freund’s fundamental essay
“Images and Struggle”: about the political use of images and their power to convey messages and create awareness
“Photography and the fourth power”: photojournalism, information and the press

Images belong to various Italian authors: Uliano Lucas, Tano D’Amico, Paola Agosti and a valuable Aldo Bonasia (his book ‘L’io in divisa is mentioned on Parr’s and Badger’s Vol III. By the way, did you know that it features a real image of a bookseller’s husband being arrested?). Also featured are many cultivated quotations from other great authors fro the wide world and relating to various fields, both documentary and artistic: Duane Michals with his photo-sequences, the photomontages by Rodchenko and Lissitzky, Don McCullin and his essential and modern war reportage… or again, the inevitable William Klein and his perception of Street Photography, which as we know, does not exist…
Many will not surprisingly become nostalgic reading about “Photography and Movement” – the Movement being not that of the camera and definitely not relating to a physical movement of the subject: as much as the title refers to ‘Setting on Fire’, the ‘Movement’ is meant to be political…
Many images to look at and texts to read, in a subversive publication that allows moments of wise reflection.