Exhibition

Clear, fresh and sweet waters. Photographic travels on Lake Como

12 April – 9 June 2019

Among the many illustrious names visiting the villa and Lake Como there is no shortage of photographers who have taken so many shots and experimented so much in this area, enthralled by the reflections of its waters and the spectacular mountain landscapes around it.

William Henry Fox Talbot – the acknowledged inventor of photography – came to visit the renowned locations around the lake in person, in September 1833, trying to immortalize them with the help of a camera lucida which projected the landscape framed by the lens onto a sheet of paper, from which contours were then outlined before completing the drawing in colour. The poor results obtained with this technique drove him to look for another way, leading him to the ingenious intuition of entrusting light with the task that the skill of the human hand could not master. Lario can thus vaunt the merit of having contributed in an important way to the technical development of photography.

The three sections of the exhibition bring together photographs of Villa Carlotta, which bring to life – a century later – the lake boats and the arts and crafts that have always characterized Como.