Emarginazione e miseria nelle “fotografie d’ambiente”. L’Inchiesta sulle abitazioni malsane in Sicilia dell’UNRRA CASAS (1954-1955)

Abstract

In the mid-1950s, the Sicilian chapter of the UNRRA CASAS (United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation–Centro autonomo di soccorso ai senzatetto) published the results of a study on the living conditions of the island’s population. Rigorous statistical and social analyses were accompanied by a corpus of photographs offering an unsurpassed visual record that went far beyond the mere illustration of their nominal subjects. Taken by local social workers and professional photographers animated by cultural and ethical principles, these images were the first to provide an inside view of the region’s neighbourhood communities, seen as expressions of misery and social exclusion, but also as custodians of identity and its cultural roots.

DOI: 10.4424/rsf2020-5