Roman-Photo / Photo-Novel

The photo-novel has received bad press. The term simultaneously implies sentimental foolishness, frivolity and ingenuousness. To date, it has only rarely captured the attention of image historians, and even less frequently that of museums and art centres. Serious mistake! Because the photo-novel has much to say to us... and not just words of love.

Invented in Italy in 1947, the photo-novel was the greatest editorial success of the post-war period and would remain the best-seller in Mediterranean popular literature for more than two decades. Its readers – for the most part women – numbered in the millions. The magazines in which they were published were passed along from person to person, so it is estimated that one in three French people read photo-novel in the 1960s.

Reconstructing this sentimental lore provides for a novel reinterpretation of the advent of the consumer society and changes to moral values, as well as an unorthodox look at the emancipation and liberation of women in Mediterranean Europe during the second half of the 20th century.

This is the crux of the « Photo-Novel » exhibition, which is a mix of more than 300 objects, films, photographs, documents and, of course, a few of the best examples of this craft which became a massive cultural industry in a short period of time, including some publications produced by directors close to Italian neorealism that have proved to be of extraordinary quality.

Jealousy and betrayal, tender kisses and broken hearts, convertibles and microwaves, Dolce Vita and class struggle: Photo-novel is a saga full of surprises, twists and love at first sight. An experience not to be missed under any circumstances!