Agostino Fasciati - The forgotten Photographer
Who was Agostino Fasciati? A polemical socialist, one who, under the pseudonym Fulvio Reto, wanted to make his ideas palatable to the rural population of Bregaglia - and he was a photographer. While we know a lot about Agostino Fasciati's eventful life, we know little about his work as a photographer. This open-air exhibition in his home village aims to trace the photographer Agostino Fasciati and shed light on some aspects of his life story.
1864 - 1885
Agostino Fasciati was born in Soglio on 17 March 1864, the last of three sons of a farmer family. He completed his training to become a teacher.
1886 - 1902
He worked as a teacher in Bregaglia, Italy and at institutes in German- speaking Switzerland. Thanks to a scholarship, he was able to attend several courses at the universities of Florence and Zurich. He became a socialist and published his first volume of prose and poetry Chiaroscuri.
1903 - 1911
Agostino taught at the Swiss school in Bergamo. During the summer holidays of 1908 in Roncobello (Val Brembana BG), he wrote in his diary about a love affair and, for the first time, about his work as a photographer.
1912 - 1922
Back in his homeland, he taught at the secondary school in Soglio. Together with his colleague Gaudenzio Giovanoli, he published a periodical newspaper, La Bregaglia del Popolo, to publicise his socialist ideas and his initiatives, such as the consumer co-operative and the introduction of health insurance. He was elected Mayor of Soglio, then President of the Bregaglia district and a member of the Grand parliament of the canton of Grisons.
The last 20 years
As a polemical spirit and radical socialist, he increasingly became an outsider. His activities brought him many problems and little recognition. His job as a teacher was terminated and he was voted out of office as a politician. He published two more volumes of poetry: Giovinezza and Carezze e baci. On 1 May 1942, he married Frida Bleuler from Zurich, but passed away shortly afterwards in Soglio, on 15 June 1942 at the age of 78.