Fondazione dell'Impero IX maggio anno XIV. A.O. (1936)

Two oblong albums measuring c. 325x24 mm. Cloth or leather bindings with gilt title and initials of Italian A.O. (Africa Orientale) on front panel (slighlty worn). The first album consists of 33 leaves, each containing 5 to 6 small photographs (90 or 180x60 mm) applied on each side with caption embedded in the photo. The second album consists of 71 leaves, each containing 1 folding landscape photograph (480x120 mm) or alternatevely two medium-sized photographs (120x160 mm) on each side (all accompanied by caption labels). In very good condition.

The more than 600 photographs collected in the two albums show landscapes, animals, portraits of local people and monuments. The two albums belong in their own right to that genre of Italian photography of the time related to African colonies, to this day quite overlooked eminently for ideological reasons. In the 1930s snapshot photography was in full development, but not yet entirely amateurish as would be the case in the following decades. So itinerant professional photographers took samples of that "exotic" reality that was so appealing in Italy, where those photographs also circulated in the form of postcards. The subjects are thus mostly posed portraits, particularly female subjects with bare breasts, definitely very daring for the time.

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