Stefano Lecchi: A Photographic Pilgrimage of War

Abstract

This article examines the photographic career of Stefano Lecchi, the Italian photographer best known for his series of photographs documenting the aftermath of the defence of the Roman Republic in 1849, a key episode in Italy’s nationalist movement, the Risorgimento. This study concentrates on the album Fotografi di Roma, which presents thirty of Lecchi’s salted paper prints from that series together with eleven topographical views. This album demonstrates how the events of the Risorgimento expanded the existing canon of Italy’s historical monuments to include new sites identified with contemporary political actions that in turn contributed to the collective memory of the founding of the nation. Using newly discovered biographical information and highlighting the transnational network of colleagues and patrons surrounding this album, the author proposes the significance of these photographs to Italian nation-building across the political spectrum and posits Lecchi as an important, although often neglected, figure in the early development of paper photography.