The exhibition “A priest photographer between the 19th and 20th centuries, from Paris to Tortorici”, curated by the lawyer Calogero Randazzo and the ‘Architect Massimo Ioppolo.
A real journey through time through the rare and interesting images exhibited at the LOC Space, which are part of a much larger collection, kept inside the former town hall of Tortorici, now home to the Franchina/Letizia ethno photographic museum.
Monsignor Calogero Franchina he is the photographer priest who returns at the end of the 19th century from Paris – where he continued his theology studies – to Tortorici, his town of origin, bringing with him this new art, photography.
For almost half a century, Mons. Franchina portrays characters, events and landscapes of Tortorici, artfully and, with art, constructing a grandiose photo reportage of the life and customs of his community and telling on photographic paper what is the evolutionary history of a little ‘ the whole of the South, not neglecting the Parisian aesthetics of the Belle Époque in the portraits.
By a fortuitous event a few years ago, all the photographic material of the priest and his niece – Marietta Letizia, heir to her uncle’s art and equipment – were found and placed inside the museum, one of the richest and most interesting ethnographic museums of the entire Southern Italy, a small jewel of the Nebroid territory that is still not very well known.
The exhibition will remain open to the public until July 6th.
