Giacomelli: ‘I went to Puglia during the summer to try something different to what I had done previously, to find a new environment, to think about new things. I didn’t make a study of Puglia; these photographs are my impressions from one day, images I decided to capture, beginning with the place, then the people, and finishing with the sea. We were in Peschici, in Gargnano, where there are hills and the sea.’
Quintavalle: ‘How much time did you spend photographing?’
Giacomelli: ‘One day; I took twenty, thirty photos. I’ve never printed the photographs that were too documentary [in style], instead it’s the photographs that I consider to have been taken by the camera itself that hold my experience.’
(Mario Giacomelli in A. C. Quintavalle, Mario Giacomelli, Feltrinelli, Milano 1980)
Giacomelli photographed at Paschici, Vico, Rodi Gardanico, and Monte Sant’Angelo.
In 1961, Elio Vittorini asked Giacomelli, via Luigi Crocenzi, if he could use his photograph People of the South (from the series Puglia) for the cover of the English edition of his book Conversation in Sicily, published by Penguin. In 1991, the publishing house Laterza assembled the book Viaggio in Puglia (Journey across Puglia) by Raffaele Nigro using photographs by Giacomelli.
