A precious, historical, admirable, cultured book that marks and draws headlights all over the world. Has a title “Short atlas of the headlights for the world ”by Josè Louis González Macías (pp. 168, publisher Einaudi, illustrated edition, Federica Niola translator, rigid cover – illustrated, 2022). José LG’s book
Macias was first published in 2020 by Ediciones Menguantes, Leòn, republished in 2022 by Giulio Einaudi.
An extraordinary geographical and literary journey to discover the most remote headlights. Sentinels that are held firmly to their rocks, the headlights are real monuments to the secrets of the sea and time. Difficult not to be fascinated by these silent lookouts. González Macías wanted to pursue their bright call to the end of the world to collect the stories of thirty -four among the most remote headlights. In this unusual Atlas populated by heroic guardians, tenacious ghosts, visionary characters continually make exceptional encounters: with Edgar Allan Poe struggling with his latest manuscript on a mysterious lighthouse, with Nelson Mandela intent on portraying the lighthouse of Robben Island, the island where he lived as a prisoner for almost twenty years, or even with Virginia Woolf who admires Godrevy, a place that would have inspired one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century. The headlights often suggest images of isolation and restlessness, yet for centuries they have been a symbol of dedication, courage and salvation: this illustrated volume shows it, accompanied by nautical cards and suggestive reproductions, which reveals small incredible universes on each page. I assure you that the book attracts and much among many texts of history, photography and cinema by way that has a back to red and white stripes. But it surprises even more
Because the author with his historical doing deigned to write two lines of the “lighthouse of Guardophui” erected in the fascist era of Italy in the Somalia del Duce. In fact on pag. 78 I read: Lighthouse of Guardophui. Complete with the image of the mighty littorio bundle 20 meters high. But the surprises are not over. The author, José Luis Gonzales Macias, begins the card dedicated to Guardofui: “When Mussolini’s lighthouse was published in 2015, the topic covered in the book was almost unknown. Up to two years
Before even its author, Alberto Alpozzi, knew a lot about headlights. Photographer specialized in reports from problematic areas, he had gone to the Gulf of Aden to document an article on Somali pirates. During the shipment he did not find the pirates but, flying over by helicopter the Northeast extreme of Somalia, photographed a stone tower that powerfully attracted his attention. ” Someone amazes or roughly the eyes? Without the photographs of Alberto Alpozzi, today we would ignore these ruins that survived the time. “ This precious chapter that is traveling around the world, found seed and initial news thanks to the book by Alberto Capozzi who – previously released – for Eclectic Edizioni has published “Mussolini’s Faro – Italian colonialism in Somalia beyond the imperial dream”.
Carlo Franza