Scanno Boy

Scanno Boy (1957) is the most successful photograph taken by the Italian photographer Mario Giacomelli.

The picture portrays dark and out-of focus women in an almost unreal fairytale atmosphere, walking towards the observer with only one single and central object in focus: a boy walking with his hands in his pockets.

In 1964 this photograph was shown by John Szarkowski in the famous exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, The photographer’s Eye (and reproduced in the catalogue in 1966). The photograph is also published in Looking at photographs. 100 pictures from the collection of the Museum of Modern Art New York (also by Szarkowski, 1973).

In 2013 the name of the boy was revealed by Simona Guerra, researcher and niece of Mario Giacomelli. His name is Claudio De Cola, and on October 19th, 1957, he was exiting the Church of Sant'Antonio da Padova like the people around him, after the Mass. Through several researches in the archives and in the town of Scanno she met the parents of the boy, who is now in his sixties and does not live in Scanno anymore. His recognition, confirmed by himself, was also done by his parents. His mother, Teopista, produced several other pictures of her son, providing evidence that De Cola was the boy portrayed by Giacomelli.