Paola Agosti: A Life in Photography Between Feminism and Politics

Paola Agosti (Turin 1947, lives between Turin and Rome) discusses her latest book 'Covando un mondo nuovo. Viaggio tra le donne degli anni Settanta' (Einaudi, 2024), co-authored with historian Benedetta Tobagi, a collection of black-and-white photographs documenting women across Italy in the 1970s. Her archive contains 360,000 black-and-white shots and 40,000 color slides from forty years. Agosti began photography by chance, working as an apprentice at the studio 'I Fantastici Quattro' (Giovanni Lussu, Mario Cresci, Luigi Ricci, Mojmir Jezek) in Rome, then collaborating with Augusta Conchiglia. She became a professional photographer covering politics for magazines like Panorama, L'Espresso, and Il Mondo. She traveled to Chile, Argentina, Cuba, Somalia, Mozambique, and Portugal with journalist Saverio Tutino. Her father Giorgio was an anti-fascist magistrate and Resistance figure; her mother Nini Castellani translated 'The Wizard of Oz' for Mondadori. Agosti stopped photographing in the early 2000s, focusing on curating historical exhibitions. Her works are in international collections including Musée de l'Elysée in Lausanne, Museo de Bellas Artes in Buenos Aires, Istituto Nazionale per la Grafica in Rome, Yale University, Centro per l'arte contemporanea Luigi Pecci in Prato, and MAST in Bologna. In 2023, Postcart published 'Paola Agosti. Il lungo viaggio di una fotografa' curated by Federico Montaldo.