«For a few months I had been hanging around the narrow streets of the Old Rome in search of beautiful images. Beautiful images for me, in those days, were all those that showed humanity immersed in gloomy loneliness: men, women, old people, children while desperately alone, their only company their anguish.
I was in another profession at the time, but I was curious if those photographs of mine would be up to the attention of a newspaper, and I chose “Il Mondo”. The weekly newspaper was then edited by Mario Pannunzio, and for being a newspaper of high cultural standing and prestige, it was a difficult and exciting obstacle for me.
I selected twelve photographs, had them printed in the 18×24 format and took them to Mrs. Bice, who was the editorial secretary. She, as soon as she saw them, turned up her nose, but took them anyway and brought them to Pannunzio, who was in his room. When she returned she still had them all in her hand, looked into my eyes and dismissed me with an abrupt “No,” which to me was worse than a gunshot.
While almost mortally wounded and offended I walked down the stairs to the newsroom, I heard someone call me. It was a journalist friend who was on his way to the “Mondo” to submit some reports, and I told him why I was unhappy and showed him the photographs. “Too small,” he immediately told me, “too small, you should have them printed larger, on cardboard, unglazed. As they are, you can’t understand anything. Besides, all self-respecting photographers submit large prints. Try it, you don’t lose anything.”
I tried to become a self-respecting photographer and with the same twelve photographs, but printed in the 24×36 on cardboard, after exactly one week I returned to “Il Mondo”. Mrs. Bice smiled at me and Pannunzio bought seven out of twelve photographs. Of those seven, four ended up on the front page. That’s how I got started».
Calogero Cascio