Dal teatro al fotolibro: The Living Book (1971) e La storia di un soldato di Dario Fo (1979)

Abstract

Focusing on two Italian case studies of the 1970s – The Living Book (1971) and La storia di un soldato di Dario Fo (1979) – this article suggests a critical approach to viewing photobooks devoted to theatre as a new kind of performative act. In these works, the photographer and performers collaborate to create a communicative object that captures the theatrical experience within their pages. The article highlights the various visual and editorial choices made in the narration of each book and contextualizes them within their respective cultural settings, while at the same time acknowledging the crucial role that photobooks play in the process of re-semantization of a theatrical event.