Over the course of the 1960s, Genoa underwent a radical transformation process, due to the reconstruction in the wake of the bombing suffered during WWII and the euphoria linked to the economic boom. Lisetta Carmi was there, and despite being Genovese herself, she manages to portray the city with the gaze of an ‘outsider’. And so in her photographs, we come across the breath of the port, the alleyways of the old town, the traces of the war, the cemetery of Staglieno, but also everyday life with children playing in the street, adolescents taking up rock and roll, right up to her famous photos of transvestites which caused a scandal at the time, and which today show us the great empathy between the photographer and the photographed.

The book is at the same time a demonstration of Lisetta Carmi’s photographic research and a document depicting a Genoa which is no more, and which is brought back to life here in her harsh black and white. The accompanying texts are provided by Giuliano Scabia, Giovanni Battista Martini and Giovanna Calvenzi.