Garda Through Giovanni Negri’s Lens at Riva del Garda Museum

Sepia-colored Garda on display in Riva del Garda. Starting Friday, March 3, in the rooms of the Museo civico of the Trentino town, about fifty Benacense scenes from the late 1800s and the first two decades of the 1900s will be exhibited, captured through the lens of Brescia-born photographer Giovanni Negri. Over decades of activity, he documented on glass plates the transformations of a territory experiencing the rapid revolution brought by tourism.

The Exhibition and the Story of Garda

Giovanni Negri’s Garda (also known thanks to the elegant volume “La memoria del lago“, published by Grafo di Brescia in 1999) juxtaposes the timeless world of fishing and lemon-gardens with the modernizing elements emerging at the time, such as the Campione cotton mill, the new road to Tremosine, the cedar water factory in Salò, bourgeois families poised on the veranda of the Gardone Riviera Casino, the paper mills of Toscolano, and the boats.

The Benaco figures prominently in the Brescia photographer’s snapshots, a subject given particular attention. Thus, the Riva del Garda museum decided to open 2000 with this initiative showcasing photographs of the entire lake.

The images offer a comprehensive exploration of the Benacense basin: from Summolago to the Veronese Riviera, all the way to Bresciano. A strongly poetic image emerges, narrating—through flashes—the story of a community that timidly embraced the great resource of tourism and highlighting the ancient fabric of local realities.