Photography of Colonial Libya in the Former Fototeca del Museo Africano: A Provisional Appraisal

In recent decades, methodological reflections addressed—sometimes from different points of view and with conflicting positions—the historiographical meaning and value of iconographic documents, and in particular of photography. Historians of Africa have played a role that can be defined as pioneering both in this debate and in the use of photographic material as a source for their studies. For this reason, since the 1970s publications on “African” photographic collections have multiplied. The Italian archival heritage in this area—which largely concerns Italian former colonies—has long been forgotten and in some cases even reduced to bad conditions by neglect and disinterest. The most significant photographic collection on Africa in Italy is undoubtedly the one kept in the Central National Library in Rome, which some time ago inherited the library and archival materials of the Italian Institute for Africa and the Orient (IsIAO) that includes several photos. In this paper, I will focus on the Libya fund, that is made up by different types of photographic material: photographic plates on glass (negative and positive), printed photographs, slides and other material. Being the first description and analysis of this fund, the chapter raises questions about the use of photographic material for the study of the history of Libya as well as of the Italian colonial period at large.