Press Release

EXHIBITION: Georgina Masson: Author and Eye - Selections from the Photographic Archive of the American Academy in Rome

29 April to 28 June, 2003 Photographic Archives

Press Release in Italian

Rome, March 3, 2003-Georgina Masson's byline and photographs are widely recognized through her books Italian Villas and Palaces (1959), Italian Villas and Gardens (1961) and her celebrated The Companion Guide to Rome (1965, frequently reprinted and soon to be available in a revised edition by John Fort) but little is known of the travel writer, photographer and socialite herself. This exhibit, which opens April 29th and runs through June 2003, provides insight into Masson's life and the vision of Italy that she generously shared. Selections for the exhibit were chosen from the American Academy in Rome's important Archive of more than 60,000 images, 5,000 of which Masson bequeathed to the Academy upon her death.

Marion "Babs" Johnson (1912-1980) came to Rome during World War II to work at her native England's Ministry of Information & Foreign Office. Ms. Johnson, who adopted the literary pseudonym, "Georgina Masson," was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and traveled throughout Italy often accompanied only by her Rolleiflex camera. The Eternal City was one of her favorite subjects. "Rome," she quotes from Silvio Negro in the foreword of her companion guide, "a lifetime is not enough."

"She was a much-loved personality at the Academy where she spent her time in our library studying art history," said President of the American Academy in Rome, Adele Chatfield-Taylor. "But she was very private and therein lies the contradiction and intrigue. Masson still continues, posthumously, to elude us while her work has become part of Italy's vernacular."

"Georgina Masson: Author and Eye, for the first time, reveals the breadth of Masson's work and her extraordinary talent," said Alessandra Capodiferro, curator of this exhibition and of the Academy's Photographic Archive. "Completely, self-taught, Masson was professional and inventive. She was a documentarian and had unmistakable personal style. Her portraits, still life, landscapes, and interiors are compelling studies."

The exhibition features thirty-five of Masson's black and white negatives that have been translated into gallery prints by photographer Mimmo Capone. A catalogue will accompany the exhibition and feature essays by Ms. Capodiferro as well as Marella Caracciolo, Milton Gendel, Elizabeth Helman-Minchilli and Caroline Vicenti. The catalogue is published by Charta, and edited by Cornelia Lauf.

Generous support for the exhibition has been provided by The Howard Gilman Foundation in memory of The Honorable Marcello Guidi.

ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHIC ARCHIVE
The holdings of the Photographic Archive of the American Academy in Rome provide a visual record of the architecture and topography of ancient Rome and Italy and the Roman Empire, for the purposes of scholarship, research and publication. Images can be viewed online as well as, with permission, at the archives itself where over 60,000 images in total are housed. The Archive is comprised of valuable and specialized collections of photographs on archeology, art, architecture, landscape architecture and gardens. It also contains special collections relevant and vital to the history of the Academy, from the late nineteenth century to the present. In addition to its own collections, the American Academy also houses the Fototeca Unione founded by Ernest Nash in 1957. For more information visit the Academy's web site at: www.aarome.org/fototeca.

Note: The exhibit will open on Thursdays from 4pm to 7pm and Saturdays from 3pm to 7pm until June 28, 2003. You may also call for an appointment

Call Milena Sales, tel. 011-39-06-5846-470 (from the U.S.), 06-5846-470 (in Rome)