There is one thing the photograph must contain: the humanity of the moment. Robert Frank Ever since the dawn of the history of photography, the portrait has been among the most widespread and popular genres, and it is to this day, right up to its most con- temporary declination in the selfie. And yet it is in this very category of images that the complexity of the relationship that the photographic medium establishes with reality is expressed most clearly. Masters of photography, such as Nadar and August Sander, revealed new potential through their images to observe men and women from perspec- tives ranging from the social to the anthropological and to the psychological. In this sense, photography has brought to light unprecedented means by which to sound out the human soul through the camera lens, with images that often arouse a relationship of estrangement between the photographic subject and the onlooker. The approaches to the theme of the portrait have always been diverse, and range from an interest of a documentary nature to research revolving around the aesthetic and formal dimension. The Scatti by Marco D’Anna belong to a tradition of portrait photography in which the subject is portrayed in his/her own environment, in relation to his/her profession or activities linked to the subject’s passions and interests. This type of portrait inevitably leads back to the photographs of Eugène Atget, the great French photographer who, at the start of the twentieth century, documented a series of occupations which would soon disappear with the onset of industrialisation. A similar intention led Irving Penn, at the start of the 1950s, to produce a major cycle of images focusing on so-called petits métiers. This category also includes some of the most poignant images by Roberto Donetta, the extraordinary wandering photographer of Corzoneso who at the start of the twentieth century documented the people and places of the Valle di Blenio. The examples cited highlight how the ‘environmental’ portrait of- ten entails a double-edged meaning: that of an image simultaneously relevant in terms both of its own value as a historic document and of its peculiar aesthetic dimension. The cycle of portraits produced by Marco D’Anna confirms the contemporary nature and the interest in this form of photographic portraiture. The wide-ranging sequence brought together in this volume offers a glimpse at the human and social reality of contemporary Canton Ticino through a series of images powerful in their compositional framework and in the balance of contrast, but most of all extraordinarily effective in their ability to offer various levels of reading. Every single portrait lends itself to gestaltic, symbolic or social interpretation, while the coupling in the pages further underlines the density of meanings of the images. Marco D’Anna’s photographic activity is diverse, ranging from industrial photogra- phy to reportage, from the reproduction of works of art to architectural photography, from the portrait to artistic research, often developed through thematic projects. His experience acquired through the project dedicated to Hugo Pratt – a research project covering various years which led him to visit countless places around the globe, fol- lowing in the footsteps of Pratt’s character, Corto Maltese – undoubtedly contributed to strengthening Marco D’Anna’s capacity to come up with images characterised by a flawless photographic quality and an intense visual impact at the same time. Such peculiarities may also be admired in the portraits brought together in this publication: a series of photographs in which Marco D’Anna’s empathic dimension with regard to his portrayed subjects transpires, along with his characteristic sensitivity in grasping the natural uniqueness of every one of them. Marco Franciolli