Venezia ‘79/ La Fotografia

Photography Exhibition At The 1979 Venice Biennale

In 1979, the Italian pavilion at the Venice Biennale hosted an exhibition of photography, and it was one of the first major photographic events in the country. It was organized on the initiative of the Municipality of Venice and UNESCO, with the artistic collaboration of the International Centre of Photography in New York, directed by Cornell Capa. The aim of the project was to document the significance of photography in every civilization and culture. The division into different exhibits paid homage to recognized photographers such as Lewis H. Hine, Eugène Atget, Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Weston, Tina Modotti, Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Eugene Smith, Weegee, Robert Frank, Diane Arbus. Furthermore, it explored genres such as Images des Hommes, The Land, Il Mondo del Colore, Japan, Italian Contemporary Photography, the Polaroid Collections, Contemporary American Photographers, Contemporary European Photography. The selection and the proposal of the authors yielded 25 exhibitions, which involved more than 500 authors. Forty-four Italian authors were selected in order to portray contemporary Italian photography.