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Chiara Samugheo was the first Italian, female photographer in the 1950s that witnessed and captured Italian life after Mussolini’s dictatorship. Later in her career she was privileged to capture some of the world’s most famous movie stars. I had the pleasure of interviewing Chiara when I met up with her in the Old town of Nice, her stories behind the images took me on a journey I will never forget and one I will treasure all my life.
Photo of Chiara Samugheo behind the lens.
As I sit talking to Chiara I see how the different generations view her work over my shoulder, for many of the young trendy ones passing through the tiny streets of Old Nice, it is clear to me that all they see is pictures of sexually posed women and old photos with insignificant faces. It is the older generation who can hardly believe what they have just seen, they understand the rareness of what they just caught a glimpse of and it is the Italian tourists who recognise her and come and shake her hand and thank her for leaving such an impression on their childhood by immortalising Italy’s golden era of movie stars.
At the age of 18 rather than marry, Chiara left her hometown of Bari to head for Milan in search of a career. After landing a job in the then male dominated world of photojournalism she was sent on assignments to capture ‘real life’ after Mussolini’s downfall. Later, as life in Italy improved there was little interest in the ‘real world’, a new social awareness was emerging and Chiara recalls that it was precisely towards the end of the 50s that the media started to realise their readers had new needs, it was a need for escapism. Suddenly illustrated magazines portraying the happier side of life were being launched, so Chiara decided to leave her photojournalism job to concentrate on the world of fashion and film.
After a meeting with Federico Patellani, one of the most important photographers of those years Chiara was offered the chance to work for him. Federico was part of a team of photographers who worked on a weekly magazine called Tempo. Here, he devised the, an innovative way of presenting news stories using a large number of photographs with brief captions, the story was then told mainly through images, with the photographer as narrator. This was the first time in Italy that the photographer was considered as an intellectual in his own right and not simply an assistant. For the evolving magazine industry, now rich in colour and stories, a new fascination was brewing with international film stars like Sophia Loren, Gina Lollobrigida and Claudia Cardinal thanks to the film studios, Cinecitta.
At this time Chiara was busy building her portfolio on fashion shoots and photographing the new wave of rising stars such as Elizabeth Taylor, Ursula Andress and Brigitte Bardot, this proved to be a huge turning point for Chiaras career.
Chiara tells us that there was a new found curiosity with actresses, it was always pictures of ladies that appeared in the magazines, “I had taken many pictures of famous couples like Claudia Cardinal and Alberto Moravia, Alberto Sordi and Silvana Mangano as well as Clarke Gable in Naples with Antonella Lualdi but these were never published, it was all about the unfolding of what we have come to know now as the ‘Diva’”.
Magazines were realising the importance of having up and coming film actresses on the cover page, it meant more sales for them and so the demand for a cover shot by Chiara sent the likes of important magazines like Playboy, Tempo and Esquire into a frenzy.
It was now1960 and a film called La dolce vita directed by Federico Fellini had just earned the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. The film was to catapult not only Chiara into the public’s growing demand for glamour, but it also heralded the start of a present day obsession with movies icons and the world of cinema. Whilst the paparazzi were clambering over eachother to get that all important shot of a star, Chiara was now firmly established in the world of the famous, dining with film directors like Federico Fellini and mixing with the movers and shakers of the cinema world. Chiara managed to capture all the greats of the 50s,60 and 70’s era , Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles, Omar Sharif, Yul Brynner, Charlie Chaplin, Claudia Cardinale, Henry Fonda, Jane Fonda, Jeanne Moreau, John Wayne, Joan Collins Tony Curtis, Gregory Peck, Stuart Granger and Cary Grant to name only a few. Chiara’s portfolio shows page after page of famous people and she also has over 165,000 negatives, all with no doubt their own delightful tale to tell.
Chiara tells a wonderful story of when she and her friend Gregory Peck went for dinner. “Gregory picked me up in his Rolls Royce to take me for dinner, then whilst eating we were joined by Cary Grant and Sammy Davis Junior, I would have loved to have captured that impromptu gathering of friends, but I could hardly ask if I could get my camera out and start photographing them”. Present day sees Chiara flitting between Nice and Venice and In 2002 Chiara was decorated with the “ Cavalliere of the Republica Italiana” medal and to date she has won 41 photo prizes. Chiara is still called upon to do special commissions and would ideally love to set up a photography school to pass on her knowledge to the younger generation.
At the end of my interview I leave feeling that I have been privileged to meet such an inspiring and wonderful lady that played such an important part in the world of photography and fortunate to have shared just a little piece of cinema history.