Carla Fracci - a memory

Photographer recalls magical meeting with star in Naples

On the anniversary of the birth of the celebrated ballerina Carla Fracci in Milan on this day in 1936, today we publish a memory that the award-winning Italian photographer Augusto De Luca has shared with us of meeting the dancer and photographing her in his home city of Naples.

How I shot Carla Fracci

By Augusto De Luca

Several years have passed, but the memory of that meeting, the memory of that magical moment, will remain with me forever.

It was the early nineties, to be precise 1991, and the book Napoli Donna had recently been released in bookshops, with my portraits of 37 important Neapolitan women, accompanied by interviews with the journalist Giuliana Gargiulo. 

Carla Fracci poses for De Luca. The ballerina was
enthusiastic about his project from the start.

Having had notable success with the book, Giuliana and I decided to make another, this time about Milanese women.

We then prepared a list of illustrious names and first on the list was Carla Fracci. 

As chance would have it, after less than a month, the beautiful dancer together with her husband Beppe Menegatti came to Naples to visit Giuliana, and I first met her at a dinner in her house. I suggested that she could participate in the project and she was immediately enthusiastic about it. 

However, Fracci was only to stay in Naples for a few days, so I had to find a location immediately and, above all, decide how to photograph her. So I began to do some research.

Reading her biography, I saw from her date of birth that her zodiac sign was Leo, a sign that fitted her like a glove. I had always considered her a very strong woman – a true warrior, both temperamentally and professionally. 

The end result: De Luca's intriguing portrait of Carla
Fracci, framed by the majestic lion of her star sign

I then remembered that at the house of my friend Valeria Carità, in an antique palazzo in Monte di Dio, I had seen a large stone lion. I quickly organised everything and the next day Fracci and I went to that magnificent house. 

Carla was beautiful, delicate and ethereal like Chinese porcelain, and wore the beautiful lace dress that you see in the photo. 

After a few tests and a few shots, I realised that I had found the right photo. I could finally relax. We spent some time chatting and then I accompanied her back. 

For various reasons, the book was never published. Nonetheless, I saw her again in Milan when she came to one of my photographic exhibitions at the Diaframma gallery in via Brera. 

I gave her the portrait and she immediately said to me: “Bella! And the lion is my zodiac sign.” I knew that I had hit the mark.

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Photographer and subject: Augusto
De Luca with Carla Fracci

Augusto De Luca, born in Naples in 1955, is a photographer and former musician, who once played guitar in ‘garage’ bands in Naples.  A graduate in Law, he became a professional photographer in the mid 1970s and has photographed many famous people during his career, as well as capturing the beauty of many great cities in Italy and beyond.  

He is known internationally, having exhibited in many Italian and foreign galleries. His photographs appear in public and private collections such as those of the International Polaroid Collection (USA), the National Library of Paris, the Municipal Photographic Archive of Rome, the National Gallery of Aesthetic Arts of China (Beijing), the Museum of Photography of Charleroi (Belgium). He has also published 10 books of his work.

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