In the library of an old house in Friuli, close to Udine, there is a door, hidden between bookshelves, which leads to an attic. This secret room is full of old toys, an enormous railway model and thousands of photographs. It was the secret lair of Alberto di Lenardo, amateur photographer.
Alberto, who passed away in 2018, had a special relationship with his niece Carlotta, whom he pampered and shared his secrets with. One day at a family lunch he confided in her her his passion for photography and showed her his archive of more than 8,000 photographs, hidden in his secret space, where he spent time putting together the pieces of an enormous railway model – another of his passions.
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Art, in its various forms (from literature to photography), is full of stories about artists who remain unknown throughout their lifetimes and are discovered, rendered famous, after their death. Think of Frank Kafka, Emily Dickinson or Vivian Maier – the nanny photographer who became famous after her death. Alberto di Lenardo is one of these stories. His photographs, discovered in the old house attic, were published in July 2020 by his niece Carlotta in a book entitled An Attic Full of Trains.
In the attic Carlotta found thousands of her grandpa’s photographs, which he took through the course of his life. Amongst them are images of Italy, its culture, its people. They’re not the usual family portraits, all grainy and blurred. They’re true gems narrating life stories from the sixties, seventies and eighties.
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Alberto di Lenardo captured moments from everyday life, with most subjects being unaware of the camera – in the style of another great photographer, Henri Cartier Bresson, master in candid photography, who believed in capturing a decisive moment. Alberto took photographs of things we all see but rarely pay attention to, like the streets we walk daily, the places we go to with our families or simply objects we have lying around the house. He experimented with composition and form, creating a series of playful stories from the past. For Alberto the camera was an extension of himself, not a mirror of the world, but the window through which he saw the world around him.
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Carlotta di Lenardo, his niece, decided to share these wonderful works of art and in July 2020 published An Attic Full of Trains (Mac Books edition). Most of the shots included in the book are of his travels: Italy, the United States, France, Greece and more. They capture moments of everyday life: the woman peacefully reading the newspaper at the side of the pool; two women, deep in conversation, looking out of a window; strangers’ faces looking out at the landscape passing by on a train; lovers embracing on a bridge; and much, much more. There are also photographs of landscapes: of a train in motion, coming out of a tunnel; an empty road in desolate country; of small boats out at sea; or pieces of clothing hanging on the line to dry. For Alberto, every moment in time, every little thing (which we might not see or see as insignificant) became something worthy of attention, something to be captured, something to be remembered.
Carlotta has also created, since 2016, an instagram page dedicated to her grandfather’s photography: @grandpa_journey
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