Images of Italian Jewish Emancipation: An Analysis of Family Photographs after the Opening of the Roman Ghetto in 1870

Abstract

Abstract: This study analyzes late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century photographs in a family album belonging to Roman Jews. The album was compiled at a crucial moment for Italy and for Italian Jews: after the wake of Italy's national unification. For many Roman Jews the risorgimento and Italian unification in 1870 resulted in liberation from crushing poverty, disease, and abuses under the papal state. These years coincided with the invention and development of photography. This article explores how Jewish emancipation and liberation from ghetto life, alongside the rise of photography, influenced the construction of images and photographic portraits of Roman Jews through the analysis of one family album.