Enrico Scuro's Anthropological Gaze: 1970s Social Change Through Photography

In an interview with Davide Dal Sasso, photographer Enrico Scuro (Taranto, 1952) discusses his anthropological approach to documenting 1970s social and cultural transformations. Scuro's thousands of shots capture protests, religious processions, youth gatherings, Umbria Jazz (1976), the Santarcangelo International Theater Festival, Radio Alice concerts, and university occupations in Bologna. His work spans Venice, Bologna, Taranto, Rome, Berlin, Barcelona, and Amsterdam. Scuro emphasizes process over result, using the camera as a tool for human connection. He describes an 'internal gaze' and empathic bond with subjects, rejecting the 'decisive moment' in favor of capturing gestures and movements. His anthropological orientation, influenced by DAMS studies, led him to photograph popular traditions in Taranto and Cerignola without staging. Scuro cites Paolo Veronese's 'Convito in Casa di Levi' (1573) as a key influence for its iconic visual potential, dispersed subject, and richness of gestures. He pursues 'iconicity' by seeking compositions that balance form and content, believing form makes images permanent. Scuro's practice avoids objectivity, asserting the photographer always directs the gaze through framing and cropping.