Annalisa "Lisetta" Carmi (15 February 1924 – 5 July 2022) was an Italian photographer.

Biography

Carmi was born in

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian census, the Province of ...

in a family of Jewish origins. Her older brother was the painter Eugenio Carmi. In the 1930s the Carmi family became a target of the Italian racial laws introduced by Benito Mussolini. Lisetta was expelled from school and forced to relocate with her family to Switzerland. At the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, the family relocated to Milan. Carmi, who had studied piano from the age of 10, graduated from the

Milan Conservatory The Milan Conservatory (''Conservatorio di Milano'') is a college of music in Milan, Italy. History The conservatory was established by a royal decree of 1807 in Milan, capital of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy. It opened the following year ...

in 1946. In 1960 she eventually decided to leave a promising career as a concert pianist to focus on photography; her first commission was as a stage photographer at the Teatro della Tosse in Genoa. In 1964, posing as a cousin of a dock worker, Carmi produced an exclusive report of the working conditions in the

Port of Genoa The Port of Genoa it is one of the most important seaports in Italy, in competition with the ports of Marseille and Barcelona in the Mediterranean Sea. With a trade volume of 51.6 million tonnes, it is the busiest port of Italy after the port of ...

. The resulting exhibition ''Genova Porto'' at

Doge's Palace, Genoa The Doge's Palace (Italian: ''Palazzo Ducale'') is a historical building in Genoa, northern Italy. Once the home of the Doges of Genoa, it is now a museum and a centre for cultural events and arts exhibitions. It is situated in the heart of the ...

, was received with critical acclaim and led her to collaborate with national magazines. Carmi's focus was on representing outcasts and socially marginalized subjects. Her 1972 photo-book ''I travestiti'' ("The cross-dressers"), which focused on the Italian LGBQ community, generated controversies, with many bookstores refusing to carry the publication. Among Carmi's best known works are her 1977 photo-books ''Acque di Sicilia'' ("Waters of Sicily"), with a text by

Leonardo Sciascia Leonardo Sciascia (; 8 January 1921 – 20 November 1989) was an Italian writer, novelist, essayist, playwright, and politician. Some of his works have been made into films, including '' Porte Aperte'' (1990; ''Open Doors''), ''Cadaveri Eccellent ...

, and ''Metropolitain'' (2018), set in the

Paris Métro The Paris Métro (french: Métro de Paris ; short for Métropolitain ) is a rapid transit system in the Paris metropolitan area, France. A symbol of the city, it is known for its density within the capital's territorial limits, uniform architec ...

. Other notable achievements were her report of the

1966 flood of the Arno The 1966 flood of the Arno ( it, Alluvione di Firenze del 4 novembre 1966) in Florence killed 101 people and damaged or destroyed millions of masterpieces of art and rare books. It is considered the worst flood in the city's history since 1557. Wi ...

and the Northern Irish conflict in

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...

. Carmi was also a portraitist. Among her well-known subjects were Ezra Pound,

Charles Aznavour Charles Aznavour ( , ; born Shahnour Vaghinag Aznavourian, hy, Շահնուր Վաղինակ Ազնավուրեան, ; 22 May 1924 – 1 October 2018) was a French-Armenian singer, lyricist, actor and diplomat. Aznavour was known for his dist ...

, Joris Ivens,

Edoardo Sanguineti Edoardo Sanguineti (9 December 1930 – 18 May 2010) was a Genoese poet, writer and academic, universally considered one of the major Italian authors of the second half of the twentieth century. Biography During the 1960s he was a leader of th ...

, Lucio Fontana,

César Baldaccini César (born Cesare Baldaccini; 1 January 1921 – 6 December 1998), also occasionally referred to as César Baldaccini (), was a noted French sculptor. César was at the forefront of the Nouveau Réalisme movement with his radical compressi ...

Judith Malina Judith Malina (June 4, 1926 – April 10, 2015) was a German-born American actress, director and writer. With her husband, Julian Beck, Malina co-founded The Living Theatre, a radical political theatre troupe that rose to prominence in New York C ...

Carmelo Bene Carmelo Pompilio Realino Antonio Bene, known as Carmelo Bene (1 September 1937 – 16 March 2002), was an Italian actor, poet, film director and screenwriter. He was an important exponent of the Italian avant-garde theatre and cinema. He die ...

, Jacques Lacan and

Claudio Abbado Claudio Abbado (; 26 June 1933 – 20 January 2014) was an Italian conductor who was one of the leading conductors of his generation. He served as music director of the La Scala opera house in Milan, principal conductor of the London Symphony ...

. In 1976 Carmi became a disciple of

Haidakhan Babaji Haidakhan Babaji, simply called Babaji by his students and devotees, was a religious teacher who appeared near the village of Haidakhan in northern India (Uttarakhand) and taught publicly from 1970 until his death in 1984. He has a following in ...

and opened an ashram in Cisternino, mainly devoting the rest of her life to spreading his teachings. She died in Cisternino on 5 July 2022, at the age of 98.

References

External links

Lisetta Carmi
at MutualArt.com * {{DEFAULTSORT:Carmi, Lisetta 1924 births 2022 deaths People from Genoa Fine art photographers Italian photographers Italian women photographers 20th-century Italian Jews 21st-century Italian Jews Milan Conservatory alumni