Catalogue of the exhibition of the same name held at Villa Carlotta (Tremezzina, Como, 14 July – 2 September 2018). Photography has been a constant at Villa Carlotta since the late 19th and early 20th centuries: it was the era in which the great Italian photographers based in Florence, Brogi and Alinari, included the museum's masterpieces and views of the park in their catalogues of images of Italy's most famous places, contributing to the fame of this already renowned site. In the first half of the 20th century, the Villa hosted prestigious photography competitions, and with the spread of colour photography, it became a favourite subject for postcard publishers, especially for the spectacular spring blooms of azaleas and rhododendrons. For these reasons, the photographic research dedicated to flowers by Dino Silingardi (Mantua, 1954) finds a particularly significant setting in the rooms of the Villa. Not only for the subject of his investigation – flowers, precisely – but also for the particular technique used to create many of the images on display: the ancient process of carbon printing, capable of restoring to black and white a richness of tones that evokes the first photographs taken in these places at the time of Duke George II of Saxe-Meiningen.