Gezicht op Pozzuoli vanaf de golfbreker 1861 - 1878

This stereoscopic photograph captures Pozzuoli from the breakwater, and was made by Ernest Eléonor Pierre Lamy. Lamy’s photograph was produced in a time when Italy became a popular destination for northern-European artists and tourists, in search of the picturesque and the historical. Italy, and its imagery, were framed through a northern-European lens. Stereoscopic imagery like this one became a popular medium through which those visitors documented their experience. In addition, photography provided artists with a tool to document what they saw, helping them to create paintings and drawings back in their studios. But how did the rise of mass tourism affect the cultural identity of Italy itself? The work of historians, sociologists, and art critics is crucial for understanding this question. The image itself, therefore, is contingent on the social and institutional contexts in which it was made and consumed.