Lens Drawn to Crowds of Human Beings: la folla nella fotografia

In this essay the author traces the crowd as a subject in the history of photography from its beginning to the present. From the pioneers of the camera obscura to the versatile professionals of our day towards the artistic imagination of a first reconnaissance of the photographed crowd techniques and languages. In seeking to understand the role of photographers that had their lens drawn to crows of human beings, this paper explores the strategies and effects of a number of this subgenre’s most notable exponents. Most recently images made during the collapse of the Soviet Union in the fall of 1991 or those that recorded the massive crowd of people which attended the widely celebrated Pink Floyd Concert at the Veniatian Feast of the Redeemer in 1989, are only few of the instances here discussed.