Palermo - Carretto

Giuseppe Incorpora senior (Palermo, September 18, 1834 – Palermo, August 14, 1914) was an Italian photographer. King Umberto I of Italy named him a Knight of the Kingdom, also granting him the title of "photographer of the Royal House." Born in Palermo in 1834 in the Tribunali district, fatherless, he was raised by his mother, who, along with his two wealthy unmarried sisters, oversaw his education and instruction, entrusting him to a French-born clergyman. His speculative flair, his fascination with the new technique of painting with light, and his perfect knowledge of French soon brought him into contact with the first itinerant photographers who, from their native France, traveled and often stopped in Sicily. He had certain and fruitful contacts with Laisné and Gustave Emile Chauffourier, and from them he learned the rudiments of the new technology. By 1859, he was already taking photographs for pleasure and out of curiosity. Married at 21 to Rosina Pagano, the orphan of a high-ranking Bourbon bureaucrat, he began his professional career as a photographer, opening his first modest studio in Palermo on Via Teatro di Santa Cecilia, very close to the family estate on Largo della Messinese. In 1859, he met Eugène Sevaistre, another traveling photographer who had stopped in Palermo and a master of stereograms. Sevaistre was responsible for the photographs taken in Palermo between late May and early June 1860, when Palermo rose up against the Bourbons and enthusiastically welcomed Giuseppe Garibaldi, who, with his Thousand and the "picciotti" from the provinces of Trapani and Palermo, had reached the island's capital. Giuseppe Incorpora and Eugène Sevaistre certainly collaborated in the serial production of stereoscopic views taken during the late May uprisings. These frames represent an extraordinary document both of the events they depict and of the off-studio shooting technique, later classified and defined as reportage. He visited and photographed Garibaldi, both in his apartment on Porta Nuova, as documented by the autographed photo marked G. Incorpora still owned by the family, and in his studio in June 1860. That same year, he had set up a new studio on Via Montesanto, later moving to Via Butera, in one of the Trabia palaces, and then again, after the opening of the Strada Nuova towards the Colli, with the Regalmici extra moenia addition, at Porta Maqueda, in the Tagliavia palace. The search for better accommodations for his studio and home, coupled with his growing passion for botany, led him to rent the main floor of Palazzo Pajno on Via Rosolino Pilo. There, he was able to install a glass loggia on a large terrace, live comfortably with his already large family—he had eight children—and devote himself to specialized floriculture and the collection of exotic plants, which he later donated to the Botanical Garden's collection. During this long period, Giuseppe Incorpora's photographic work became known throughout Europe, with his exhibitions taking place from Dublin to Vienna, from Paris to Turin, then the capital of the Kingdom of Italy. Widely acclaimed and widely acclaimed, he developed relationships with Europe's most important photographers, befriended the Lumière brothers in Paris, and photographed kings and crown princes. Among his most illustrious clients were Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, Donna Franca Florio, King Edward VII of the United Kingdom, and Alexandra of Denmark; and nobles such as Baron Luigi Tulumello and many others. King Umberto and Queen Margherita, so pleased with the photographs he took, added to the fee a precious blue and gold enamel tie pin with a diamond U and awarded him, in November 1880, the royal patent, authorizing him to erect the royal coat of arms on the studio's emblem. On the same date, Giuseppe was named a Knight of the Kingdom for artistic merit. A full member since the founding of the famous Italian Photographic Society in Florence, he made interesting technical contributions, was named a Commander of the London Order of Minerva, a Knight of the Order of Iftikar by the Bey of Tunis in 1881, and a member of the Jury of Honor at the 1891 National Exhibition in Palermo. In 1907, he received a coveted visit from Auguste Lumière, who brought him some color-sensitized plates with the famous autochrome process. His son Francesco, to whom he had handed over his position in the company, supported by Lumière's experience, impressed them with the images of his parents. He died on August 14, 1914. He collaborated with Eugenio Interguglielmi, and the two were the leading photographers in the Sicilian capital. Both were awarded prizes at the Palermo Exposition in 1891-92, where Enrico Seffer was also awarded, who, together with the two, were among the three most famous Palermitan photographers of the turn of the century. Among the subjects photographed by Incorpora were Giuseppe Garibaldi, Umberto I, and Margherita of Savoy. His work was continued by his sons Francesco and Giovanni, and by his grandson Giuseppe jr.