«L’eletta schiera of actors in front of my lens»

Attilio Badodi, an Italian portrait-photographer in early twentieth century

Abstract

Still largely unexplored, the photographic production of Attilio Badodi can be considered a sort of historical epitome of the Italian theater of the early twentieth century by virtue of the exceptional number of characters from the world of theatre who passed in front of his lens, between actors and actresses, directors and playwrights, composers and musicians. The essay aims to reconstruct the unpublished biographical profile of one of the photo-portraitists most linked to the world of the scene at that time and to outline his expressive parable, based on an elegantly authentic figure and on a narrative register oriented towards an identity investigation of the subject. In the portraits of actors made by Badodi, an entire generation of theatre’s women and men reverberates, and recognize in the stage of photography the space of revelation of their multiple natures.