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

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.