Capturing Class and Non-normative Sexuality in Early Twentieth-Century Italy: The Recovered Photographic Archive of Eugenia Codronchi Argeli and Bianca Belinzaghi

Abstract

Guido San Giuliano (male alias of novelist Bianca Belinzaghi, 1861–1943) and Sfinge (pseudonym of feminist writer and noblewoman Eugenia Codronchi Argeli, 1865–1934) were both passionate collectors and producers of photographs. Their joint archive of more than three thousand images offers a glimpse into their personal lives as a lesbian couple in early twentieth-century Italy, including portraits exchanged between them, photos of the property where they lived together, and three private photographic albums, only recently rediscovered, that served as a symbolic space for the assemblage of visual chronicles of their relationship. Delving into how the couple used photography as means to challenge heteropatriarchal norms, the article highlights the documentary value of their images while arguing for importance against the backdrop of their sociohistorical context.