Luigi Ghirri’s “Atlante” : deconstructing and dissolving the cartographic rules

This article offers considerations on the conventional nature of the representation of maps, based on the first editorial product created in 1973 by Italian photographer Luigi Ghirri, ‘Atlante’. The implications of this operation are examined from various points of view. The first part of the text involves recent history and the theory of art and photography in Italy. The second one offers a succinct overview of graphic design's field of action in Italy at the time that ‘Atlante’ was produced. Finally, a further critical reading of the work is inspired by texts written years later by Giovanni Anceschi and Giovanni Lussu, two theoreticians who have made a fundamental contribution to the development of the graphic design discipline in Italy.