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The whisper with a thousand echoes: Tony Gentile’s photograph of Falcone and Borsellino

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 November 2016

Eleanor Canright Chiari
Eleanor Canright Chiari*
Affiliation:
School of European Cultures and Society, University College London
*
*Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Tony Gentile’s photograph of Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino is one of the most reprinted Italian photographs of the twentieth century. Deriving a special status from its connection to the lost dead bodies of the judges, Gentile’s photograph is a cultural icon, which makes demands on viewers in the present like an uncanny revenant from 1992. This paper considers examples of ways the photograph has been visually, symbolically and materially manipulated by social agents in the years since the judges’ assassinations, to reflect on the polysemous power of the photograph. Considering visual adaptations of the photograph from anti-mafia demonstrations to monuments, and commemorative stamps; from football stadiums to political cartoons, this paper will show how Gentile’s photograph has become the quintessential visual symbol representing the struggles over the memory and meaning of the war against the mafia in contemporary Italy.

Italian summary

La fotografia di Giovanni Falcone e Paolo Borsellino, scattata nel 1992 da Tony Gentile, è una delle fotografie italiane più famose del ventesimo secolo. La fotografia di Gentile è anche un’icona culturale che trae il proprio potere simbolico dal suo implicito legame con i corpi dei giudici uccisi. Questo articolo considera alcuni usi pubblici della fotografia sia nell’ambito della protesta che delle commemorazioni ufficiali. L’articolo si interessa in particolare alle re-invenzioni e manipolazioni grafiche e plastiche della fotografia originale, per considerare alcune ‘reazioni culturali’ al fenomeno mafioso in Italia nell’ambito della memoria collettiva.

Keywords

Falcone e Borsellinomafia/anti-mafiacultural iconscartoonscommemorative stampsphotography
Type
Research Article
Information
Modern Italy , Volume 21 , Special Issue 4: Special Issue: Iconic Images in Modern Italy: Politics, Culture and Society , November 2016 , pp. 441 - 452
Copyright
© 2016 Association for the Study of Modern Italy 

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