Roberto Donetta was a genius Swiss photographer and portraitist. He learned photography from the sculptor Dionigi Sorgesa. He also taught him the basics and gave him the camera. He made a living as a traveling photographer and seed salesman, and he left behind nearly 5,000 glass plates that were preserved merely by chance after he passed away. Donetta became a unique chronicler, at the same time a master of his medium and a free experimenter, over a period of 30 years and in an era of significant change. The following pictures capture the archaic lives of his compatriots in the The Blenio Valley, which was at the time totally isolated, as well as the gradual advance of modernism sensitively and expressively. His photographs portray children, families, wedding couples, professionals, hard-working women, men, and the photographer himself – with wit and poignancy.
Donetta’s economic problems forced him to rely on public (communal) assistance. On his death, the Commune of Corzoneso auctioned off the few belongings previously owned by the photographer in order, in part, to retrieve the money spent for his maintenance. Although his household goods were sold, his photographic plates found no buyers, so the Commune became the material’s owner.
