About the Work
Naples held great appeal for tourists not only because of its charming coastal scenery and awe-inspiring Mount Vesuvius, but also thanks to its customs and traditions. Particularly from the 1880s onwards, Italian-based photographers increasingly marketed studies of human beings that shaped and continually fuelled the cliché of the poor but carefree population of Southern Italy. With his outsider’s perspective on the Italian culture, the native Frankfurter Giorgio Sommer contributed to shaping the visual habits of tourists. In one of his series he captured street scenes and ceremonies such as the funerary procession of the Congregazione di San Francesco. At the time this shot was taken, photographic technique was not capable of capturing movement. To make certain details appear less hazy, especially the faces of those accompanying the procession, Sommer touched up the negative in several places by hand.
