This time we will not talk about places or monuments but we are going to present some examples of an interesting and useful photographic research summarized in four volumes, one for each province.
The research has been made by Professor Giancarlo Pinto of the University of Genoa.
We think that a similar research should spread to the other Italian regions.

During the course of “Fotografia Applicata” Professor Giancarlo Pinto of the Department of Architecture together with his staff produced a photographic research about the Ligurian towns and published four volumes, one for each province (La Spezia, Genoa, Savona and Imperia) entitled “Viaggio fotografico in Liguria”.

The research arises from the desire of discovering and gathering material about the Ligurian territory, immortalizing with photos all its 235 municipalities, underlining three topics: architectures, details and sights.

To my knowledge in Italy there is no other similar research, so complete as to comprise all the municipalities of a region.
This project went on for five years, with the contribution of 300 students; the photos are about 5000, on average 20 for each municipality.

And now we quote (not literally):

Method
I assigned to each student a municipality with the commitment to go there as a tourist, gathering information on the place and taking photographs not only of the well-known spots, but images which trespassing the visual perception could also transmit the sensations, the sentiments, the emotions and the fascinations experienced during the exploration of the place.

Obviously the images are not all correct, not all of them portrays the relevant buildings, but as a whole reflect the emotions of a person who, strolling around a town, discovers it little by little, is intrigued and, following his instinct, comes out in a square or in a courtyard of which he want to highlight only some interesting aspects.
Together with our Ligurian students there were also some Piedmontese and foreign students (thanks to the Erasmus Programme) who so could deepen their knowledge of our territory and give their contribution.
Changing the frame, moving in the space, catching glimpses and views sometimes it is possible to distinguish and understand architectural elements which are hidden or dimly visible.

The composition of the work
The first volume about La Spezia contains close examinations of the photographs compiled by the authors, the map of the province with the list of the municipalities and a presentation.
Then there is a series of full-page photos and the 32 files of the municipalities.
Each file gives information about the territory, the hamlets, the neighbor municipalities, how to get there and, at the bottom, the author of the photos.
The volume continues with the files of Architecture, Details and the Sights with cartography, the plan of the photos with their description.
At the end of the volume the author index.
The plan is the same for all the other volumes about Genoa, Savona and Imperia.

Year after year the project arose and finally was concluded thanks to the competence and the readiness of my excellent collaborators, with whom I revised all the images, advised on the necessary cuts, assisted during the post-production and at the end we all are pride to propose to the public this great effort.

For info you could contact:
pinto@arch.unige.it