Published by Aliberti editore in 2012, L’odore della guerra. Inviati al fronte is an Italian-language, 165-page book concerned with war and the practice of military journalism. Its title—literally invoking the smell of war—sets a deliberately physical frame. Conflict is approached not solely as history or distant spectacle, but as an environment entered, sensed, and reported by correspondents sent to the front.

The volume brings together Fabio Bucciarelli and Stefano Citati in a structure that combines chaptered writing with photographs. Citati’s contribution occupies the first four chapters, while the final two chapters and photographic material form a further section of the book. A preface by Mimmo Càndito adds another journalistic voice. This arrangement gives the project its distinguishing character: it is neither simply a portfolio nor only a written account, but a collaboration in which text and images address the conditions under which war becomes reportable.

The book’s importance lies in that dual perspective. By placing frontline experience beside the work of representation, it directs attention toward both armed conflict and the people who mediate it for others. The phrase Inviati al fronte identifies the correspondent not as an invisible observer but as someone physically exposed to the circumstances being documented. The sensory force of the main title sharpens this emphasis, suggesting forms of knowledge that cannot be reduced to dates, strategy, or official narration.

For collectors interested in conflict photography, Italian publishing, or the relationship between photojournalism and written reportage, the volume offers a clearly defined historical object from 2012. Its value within such a collection comes from the specific conjunction of subject, authorship, and editorial structure: two contributors, six chapters, photographs, and an experienced journalist’s preface assembled around the problem of witnessing war at close range.