Mario Nunes Vais

Mario Nunes Vais, Lady Hortense Acton (1914-15)

Mario Nunes Vais (* 1856 in Florence ; † 1932 there) was an Italian photographer .

Life

Mario Nunes Vais belonged to a Jewish merchant family who moved from Livorno to Florence. As a hobby photographer, he took more than 60,000 photos in about 40 years. Numerous personalities posed for him in his studio in the family's palazzo in Via Borgognissanti or in his attic in Borgo degli Albizi in Florence.

Gabriele D'Annunzio and the Futurists held him in high regard. In 1913, on the occasion of the futurism exhibition organized by Lacerba magazine , Nunes Vais documented the exhibition and its protagonists. In addition to Marinetti , Carrà , Papini , Boccioni , Palazzeschi and Soffici , he also portrayed Benedetto Croce , Giovanni Gentile , Eugenio Montale , Thomas Mann , Giacomo Puccini , Guglielmo Marconi , Edmondo De Amicis , Paola Borboni , Sibilla Aleramo and Vittorio De Sica .

The introduction of the racial laws in Italy (1938) no longer affected him. His daughter Laura survived the Holocaust . In 1973 she donated her father's archive to the public, the then Istituto Centrale del Restauro - today: Istituto Superiore per la Conservazione ed il Restauro .

literature

• Mario Nunes Vais photographer. Firenze, Palazzo Vecchio, Sala d'Armi, maggio-giugno 1974 , Firenze, Centro Di, 1974
• Marcello Vannucci, Mario Nunes Vais fotografo fiorentino , prefazione di Giovanni Spadolini, Firenze, Bonechi, 1975;
• Gli italiani nelle fotografie di Mario Nunes Vais. Roma, Palazzo Venezia, Sala Barbo, 15 novembre-10 dicembre 1978 (catalog)
• Claudio Giorgetti, Volti d'epoca, omaggio all'arte fotografica di Mario Nunes Vais , Viareggio, 1997;

Web links

Commons : Mario Nunes Vais  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files