Ten years after the death of photographer Caesar Monti…
Caesar Monti (1946 – 2015), born Cesare Montalbetti, was an internationally renowned photographer and director, linking his signature not only to some of the most popular 45 rpm and LP covers of Italian discography, from pop to prog, but also to the field of advertising and visual art. He liked to define himself as a “poet of the image”. An interest in photography that dates back to his military service, later developing a personal technique as a self-taught person, refining his photographic ability in hand printing by creating his famous grainy effect.
Ten years after his death, his daughter Alice Montalbetti, making her literary debut, remembers him by retracing, through a fictionalized and autobiographical narrative, the era of her father’s highly original home-studio in Viale Monte Nero 55, at the time frequented by singers, bands and artists linked primarily to the Numero Uno label.
«I am a child of art but I didn’t follow the path of my parents, so I don’t know how to draw or photograph» – explains the author Alice Montalbetti. «Where and how to begin to tell what I experienced as a child in those times? Usually a book should excite you but I had no idea how many words I could turn into ink. I just knew that this book would be autobiographical with a touch of fictionalized fiction. Although, even now, I wouldn’t be able to say how much is true and how much is imagined. Leaving aside all the “they told me”, I can say that you will find a journey through words and images, which began from a small porthole-shaped window in my incredible life. I was born on a Monday in April in Milan in Viale Monte Nero 55 and what I’m telling you is my story, intertwined with that of the covers of the greatest Italian music of the 70s, between those four walls, under a four meter high ceiling and a creaking floor… Daily episodes that have now become history, while I still dream of that wonderland”.
The volume is enriched by several images of the Montalbetti family and some shots of well-known national singer-songwriters, some unpublished, including curious anecdotes by the journalist Luca Cecchelli on the creation of the most famous covers in the history of Italian music of the 70s. «To reiterate that – explains Cecchelli – in addition to the well-known bond with Lucio Battisti, who gave him his stage name and encouraged him to undertake this career, it is often not remembered enough that Monti had numerous experiences and over time also formed friendships with other artists in the world of Italian music, from Fabrizio De André to the Banco del Mutuo Soccorso, from PFM to Mia Martini, from Enzo Jannacci to Pino Daniele, an ideal artist who will close a prolific activity.
Here are the videos of my conversation with Alice Montalbetti.
Part 1:
Part 2:
