Historical Italian Underwater Photobook---NEW-Not in US

[21]

THE HISTORY OF UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHY AND CINEMATOGRAPHY IN ITALY.
(Storia della Fotografia e Cinematografia Subacquea Italiana.)
by Alberto Romeo.

A very interesting book and a great contribution by Alberto Romeo to the historical record of Italian underwater photography and diving .

We know of the French contribution to recreational diving - Cousteau made sure of that! - but few of us have bothered to appreciate the contribution of the Italians, especially in underwater photography and cinematography. They have been at it since 1932, with weird and bulky homemade and later commercial equipment housing the Rolleimarine and Praktiflex, and the American Elmo Kodak movie camera.

Those individuals whose names and accomplishments are familiar to us such as Raimondo Bucher, who set the world's first free diving record at 130 feet and was a consultant to the US ONR on underwater warfare after WW11, Roberto Rossellini, the great director who is remembered for his controversial marriage to the actress Ingrid Bergman and those whose names are not as familiar to us Victor de Sanctis, and Folco Quilici, Fosco Maraini, Bruno Vailati,and the author himself, Alberto Romeo,but they should be for their pioneering contributions to the development of underwater photography.

The book takes a chronological look at the development of Italian Underwater photography from 1932 to 1989, mentioning the latter years contributions the German Dr. Hans Hass and the Frenchman J.Y. Cousteau .

The early Italian diving gear is unique and should be interest to the vintage equipment diver/collector as a reference.

The book is certainly an interesting stroll into the pioneering days of yesteryear when photographic equipment was ingeniously home made and cautiously in water tested to the present day when underwater photographic equipment seems to have stabilized in development divided between housings and the self-contained Nikonos type systems which can be purchased off the shelf and used immediately with out regard of leakage.

Special foldout plastic cover bound, 430 pages, hundreds of mono photographs, index, bibliography, text and captions in Italian and English.
Published with the support of the Historical Diving Society of Italy.
Price expected to be about $75.00-(US)
Currently not available in the US
(information from Peter; Ocean Enterprises, copy by #21)

[VINTAGESCUBA]

Thanks for the great info Sam.Of course the first frogmen were the Italians in the Decima Flottiglia Mas.I will ad this book to my collection.