Cecilia Mangini's Southern Italy Photography at Rome Museum

A retrospective of photographer Cecilia Mangini (born 1927 in Mola di Bari) at the Museo delle Arti e Tradizioni Popolari in Rome showcases her black-and-white images of southern Italy's rural poverty and magical beliefs. Her work, influenced by anthropologist Ernesto De Martino, captures the 'culture of misery' (Oscar Lewis, 1967) with subjects like a woman praying in Mola di Bari (1958) and laborers at Lipari quarries (1952). Later, her collaboration with Pier Paolo Pasolini turned to Milan's urban peripheries, documenting postwar consumer society amid war ruins and emerging modern architecture. The exhibition highlights Mangini's anthropological gaze, avoiding interpretation but revealing archaic structures. Her film 'Stendalì. Suonano ancora' (1960) is noted as a synthesis of her photographic consciousness.