Antonio Raffaele Giannuzzi – Wikipedia

Antonio Raffaele Giannuzzi (Matera, 1818 – Tehran, 1876) was an Italian patriot, general and photographer in the army of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and in the army of the Kingdom of Persia.

It was born in the city of Matera in 1818, enlisted as a simple soldier in the real army of the two Sicilies in Naples.
Later he fought in the First War of Italian Independence, in the body sent by Ferdinand II against the Austrians in 1848, committing himself in the defense of Venice, by Daniele Manin and Niccolò Tommaseo of 1848-49, volunteer, contravence under the orders of his king who had The military body, following General Guglielmo Pepe and obtaining promotion to non -commissioned officer on the field; Serial number 13. Revolutionary registered in the refined list, it was not just a figure of the Italian Risorgimento ^[first] .

Proscribed, together with other exiles he explored clandestinely, choosing to head to Greece in the footsteps of those who fought for the independence of the same. He joined a group commanded by a Calabrian officer; Francesco Matarazzo, embarking on the brigantine good luck on August 21, 1848 to Athens, where he was approached by British agents. The governments of the Middle East through British agents enrolled sought after European fighters and therefore exiles at home, so in 1850 together with other exiles, he was sent to Constantinople, where he was received by the English ambassador Lord Stradfort de Rédcliff. The proposal was to serve the Ottoman army without the obligation to embrace the Islamic faith, but living their name, because the Koran prevented the Ottoman military from ricining orders from a foreign military military person. Considering the humiliating condition, accepted the offer of the Legation of Persia which did not impose similar conditions, entering the Persian army. The Persia called Sublime state of Persia in the Qajar period, governed by the Shià
Nasser al-Din Shah Qajar was opening up to the West and were hired as instructors of the Royal Army, Giannuzzi came to take on the position of commander in chief of the European instructors of the Director infantry, until he reached the degree of sertipe , equivalent to that of General. The Scià, of great cultural liveliness and open to new technologies, remained impressed in Paris by the new discovery; Photography decided to bring her to Persia, to document the discoveries and the situation of her country in an innovative way, with a means that faithfully reported the reality of the facts. So in 1858 a series of missions in the territory for military-documental purposes were organized with the officers Luigi Pesce and Antonio Raffaele Giannuzzi, who soon also took an artistic form. The hundreds of photographic images taken, constitute the first and most generous importance of the state in which Persia was at that time, monuments, sacred buildings, archaeological excavations, infrastructures, cities. The first modern photographic reportage had been made, between narrative for images and scientific documentation, which includes views and buildings. His death took place in Tehran in 1876, where he is buried ^[first] .

Documentists, were the pioneers through which the West discovered very rare images of an unknown land. For Iran they are very important images, because they constitute the vast basis of its first photographic documents. Little known, it is a page that entered the history of photography of all time ^[2] .
The photographs are now kept in the Museum of Palazzo del Golestan in Tehran ^[3] .

• Marcello Morelli, History of Matera , Matera, F.lli Montemurro, 1963.
• Giuseppe Gattini, Of the weapons of the city and province of Matera, with different news of heraldic, history and art , Matera, tip. Commercial, 1909.