Anno XVIII / n.s. 8 – 2021
Essays

Un teatro ‘a bassa definizione’. Ernesto Brod fotoreporter sul ‘journal’ «Comœdia»

Published 2022-04-05

Keywords

  • Illustrated press,
  • «Comoedia»,
  • stage photography,
  • caricature,
  • photographic sociability

How to Cite

Chiarelli, C. (2022). Un teatro ‘a bassa definizione’. Ernesto Brod fotoreporter sul ‘journal’ «Comœdia». Drammaturgia, 18(8), 239–258. https://doi.org/10.36253/dramma-13549

Abstract

The cultural phenomenon of illustrated press that characterizes the passage between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries determines, even in theatrical field, a real explosion of specialized periodicals, in which the novelty of stage photography finds space immediately, as well as the other types of images linked to the performing arts, fueling a specific market and a progressive specialization of professional photographers. At the same time, however, the nature of the magazine’s material support imposes a new visual dynamic and a different relationship with the reader/spectator. In this context, the article focuses on the Parisian newspaper «Comoedia» (1907-1937), and more particularly on the emblematic case of Ernesto Brod, a photographer now completely forgotten, and of whom very little biographical information remains, but who is instead very active as a photographer, as well as a caricaturist, on the pages of the journal during the first quarter of the twentieth century. His photographic production, apparently amateur and with a lower profile than that of other more renowned photographers, represents instead an example of adaptation to a broader strategy of mediatization of the theatrical event, in which photography plays a fundamental function as a tool for interaction and sociability with the audience.

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