Felice Andreis

Felice Andreis (21 June 1907 – 7 March 2015) was an Italian photographer and agricultural entrepreneur, known for his documentary photography of Maremma, Tuscany, through which he recorded rural life, land reclamation projects and agricultural transformations during the 20th century. Influenced by modernist photography, his work was exhibited internationally and published in photographic journals.

Life and career Born in Turin in 1907 into an aristocratic family, he had the title of baron. He graduated in chemistry from the University of Turin in 1929.

He developed an interest in photography during his youth and began exhibiting his work in 1932, when he took part in the fifth Alpine Photography Exhibition organized by the Turin section of the Italian Alpine Club (CAI). In 1933 he moved to Maremma, Tuscany, where he managed the San Donato estate near Orbetello, then part of the Aziende Agricole Maremmane, a Turin-based company of which he was an executive. During this period he documented rural life, agricultural activities, land reclamation projects and the transformation of the Tuscan landscape through photography. He was also personally involved in reclamation works, including the construction of the Poggio Perotto dam (1934–1938) on the Serra stream, which became one of his recurring photographic subjects.

During the World War II part of his photographic archive was lost due to the bombing of Turin. He returned to Maremma in 1975, continuing his photographic activity. His archive contains around 15,000 negatives, prints, slides and documents related to his personal and professional life.

Two documentaries have been produced on the figure of baron Felice Andreis: Edo Galli's Il tempo delle bonifiche. La Maremma, il barone, l'Africa. Felice Andreis documentarista (1996), a 15-minute documentary focusing on his work as a documentarian of the Maremma land reclamation projects, and Claudio Longobardi's Il barone fotografo (2008), an 8-minute short film dedicated to his life and photographic activity.