Street scene, Trapani

Over 1300 black and white photographs were taken during Alan Lomax's six-month field trip through Italy with Diego Carpitella in 1954 and 1955. Lomax's growing skill with the camera produced a collection of images evoking the musical culture of peasants, shepherds, fishermen, and artisans in over a hundred localities from Sicily to the Alps. They bear testimony to an era in Italian life and history that was both tragic and enormously fecund.