Photographing Mussolini: The Making of a Political Icon

This pioneering book offers the first account of the work of the photographers, both official and freelance, who contributed to the forging of Mussolini’s image. It departs from the practice of using photographs purely for illustration and places them instead at the centre of the analysis. Throughout the 1930s photographs of the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini were chosen with much care by the regime. They were deployed to highlight those physical traits - the piercing eyes, protruding jaw, shaved head - that were meant to evoke the Duce’s strength, determination and innate sense of leadership in the mind of his contemporaries. The chapters in this volume explore the photographic image in the socio-political context of the time and shows how it was a significant contributor to the development of Italian mass culture between the two world wars.

Alessandra Antola Swan is a cultural historian and independent researcher. Her PhD on Mussolini and photography was part of the project The Cult of the Duce. Mussolini and the Italians, 1918-2005. In 2013 she organised the ASMI conference Iconic Images and in 2016 she was guest editor for the follow up special issue of Modern Italy 2016.