Book explores Michelangelo Antonioni's Blow-Up and the nature of photography

A new book, 'Io sono il fotografo. Blow-Up e la fotografia', published by Contrasto in 2019, delves into Michelangelo Antonioni's 1966 film Blow-Up and its interrogation of photography's claim to truth. The volume collects the original short story by Julio Cortázar, 'Las babas del diablo', which inspired the film, along with Antonioni's unpublished screenplay annotated in his own hand. It reveals that the iconic enlargements showing a secret lovers' meeting in Maryon Park, Woolwich, southeast London, were actually shot by war photographer Don McCullin, hired by Antonioni. The book includes a questionnaire Antonioni sent to London fashion photographers to shape the protagonist, a report by Anthony Haden-Guest on the photographer's life in 1960s London, and an interview by Francis Wyndham with Swinging London figures David Bailey, Terence Donovan, and Brian Duffy. Critical essays by Philippe Garner, Walter Moser, Ernesto Franco, and Goffredo Fofi accompany the materials. A final section reprints Alberto Moravia's interview with Antonioni for L'Espresso shortly after the film's release. The book argues that Antonioni used the film to question photography's evidentiary value, emphasizing its ambiguity and the limits of visual perception.