Gezicht op Capri 1865 - 1875

Giovanni Crupi captured this photograph, titled "Gezicht op Capri", using the photographic techniques available at the time. Born in Southern Italy, Crupi lived during a period of significant social and political change, witnessing the unification of Italy and the subsequent diaspora. Many Italians sought new lives elsewhere. Through his lens, Crupi offers us a view of Capri, an island that has long been a site of both leisure and labor. The image invites us to reflect on themes of migration, identity, and the allure of place. Here, we observe not just a landscape, but a place with a burgeoning tourism economy and a working-class population. We can imagine the complex, human stories of the local inhabitants. Crupi invites us to ponder the multifaceted relationship between people and place, between the global desire for paradise and the lived realities of those who call such places home.