Muti testimoni di un istante fugace: due prospettive a confronto sull’album fotografico di Lamberto Loria

The article deals with a photographic album donated to Mr. Clearco Freccia by the Italian anthropologist Lamberto Loria, album which is now owned by a private collector. There is no information available about these pictures, which were either collected or taken by the anthropologist himself during his travels through India, in 1886. What did these pictures represent for Loria? and what do they represent for an observer today? The authors of this essay decided to offer their interpretation, issued from their personal, and largely different, knowledge of Indian culture. Chiara Bellini, who traces the hypothetical and fascinating route of Loria’s travels among north-Indian cities and monuments, points out the relevance of these pictures to verify the status of monuments prior to their later restoration. Luca Villa, who opts to consider these photographs as artefacts collected from a professional studio operating in India, locates anthropological proclivities in using camera during the last part of 19th century. Loria’s album can clearly suggest other turns of mind, which each reader is invited to guess by watching it.