The unknown work of Carlo Mollino of the 50s
is published for the first time and represents
his first attempts at nude photography

The eclectic genius of Carlo Mollino (1905-1973) is internationally renowned and acknowledged for his achievements in furniture design, but not many know that photography was one of his dearest passions.

Photography, which he initially used in the 30s as a means for developing his visions of architecture and interior design and making them precise, quickly developed into a free form of expressionfor him right after Gio Ponti chose to publish one of his photos as a work of art on the cover of Domus magazine of April 1937. Mollino then devoted himself to photography throughout all his life.For the first time ever, the text of this book narrates this story and reconstructs its development and stages through careful archival research and thanks to the interviews with some of the people that were in some way involved with the story.

With its 352 photos, the catalogue section of this book exhaustively and specifically investigates the years that saw Mollino first engaged in nude photography. In 1956, he specially furnished a little apartment he rented inside Villa Scalero in Turin to shoot his photos using a Leica and colour negative films. Until 1962, he took hundreds of portraits there and so formed a very peculiar body of work in the history of photography. It was different from the classic b&w nude photography and was enriched with the use of intense and mellow colours. It made use of composition that did not disdain to be symbolic and related to certain late 19^th century paintings and also made use of refined lingerie, personally chosen with the skill of an architect, to dress his models. Mollino personally retouched most of his photos, which made them unique prints, and spent hours shaping women's bodies with his little brushes.

In 1962, Mollino left Villa Scalero and his Leica to move to another environment, once again designed by him, and, from then on, he made exclusive use of a Polaroid camera.