The exhibition

Fratelli Alinari, The Faraglioni, Capri, ante 1915, modern silver salt print on paper from silver gelatin dry glass plate negative, Alinari Archives, Florence

Francesco Jodice, “Capri, The Diefenbach Chronicles, #003” 2013 © Francesco Jodice - Museo di Fotografia Contemporanea, Milano-Cinisello Balsamo

The exhibition begins with the photographs from the Alinari Archives and continues with the works from the collection of the Museo di Fotografia Contemporanea. The two collections are in constant comunication through a series of "sparks", moments of direct and unexpected dialogue which create a sort of temporal short circuit and can be intended as an invitation for the visitor to find further infinite suggestions.

The itinerary inside the exhibition is thus a real journey through Italy: from the photographic views of the Alinari brothers to the "natural shots" by Luigi Ghirri from the north to the south of Italy; from the depiction of the Milanese factories by Gabriele Basilico to the first backlit negatives, up to the latest research where photography is increasingly open to other media.

At the end of the exhibition, a broad idea of landscape remains, introducing immaterial and abstract dimensions - psychological, poetic, political - which leave room for the interpretation of the public. The aim of the project isn't a reconstruction of the history of the Italian photography, instead it is to engage the visitor - through the images of the two collections - in a unique and precious travel experience.

Below is a selection of the works from the Alinari Archives on display.

Panoramas and panoramic photos

Leopoldo Alinari, "View of Florence", 1860, overview with 3 albumen prints on paper from collodion negative on glass, Alinari Archives, Florence

Fischli & Weiss, “Senza titolo (Milano Duomo)”, 1992-2000, © Peter Fischli e Eredi David Weiss - Città metropolitana di Milano / Museo di Fotografia Contemporanea, Milano-Cinisello Balsamo

The monumental photographs, with the triumph of the urban view, represent the moment in which photography assumes the monopoly of the image, snatching the primacy that until then was held by engraving and imposing its cultural, popular and informative function.

In the "View of Florence" of 1860 by Leopoldo Alinari, the author reconstructs a wide panorama with three shots on a collodion plate. He combines a rigorous composition with an impeccable focus and reconstructs a geometrically refined perspective view with vibrant details.

The monumental "Panorama of Rome taken from Tasso's oak" by Michele Petagna demonstrates all the taste for the scenographic rendering of the cities of art, of which the production of Petagna's atelier was rich, first in Florence and then in Rome.

Like Petagna and Leopoldo Alinari, Tommaso Cuccioni also began as a chalcography artisan and then devoted himself to the trade of prints, from engravings to daguerreotypes and calotypes. He achieved great success with his city views, often obtained by combining multiple negatives, with a remarkable technical and aesthetic talent.

The nineteenth century: the photographic imagery of the Bel Paese

Pierre-Ambroise Richebourg, Ponte Rotto (Pons Aemilius “Ponte Rotto”), 1844 ca., full plate daguerreotype, Alinari Archives-Unicum Objects Collection, Florence

Joseph Philibert Girault de Prangey, View of the Roman Forum, 1842, panoramic full plate daguerreotype, Alinari Archives-Unicum Objects Collection, Florence

Giacomo Caneva, Remains of the Villa dei Quintili, 1855 ca., albumen salted paper, Alinari Archives, Florence

Robert MacPherson, Convent of San Cosimato near Vicovaro above Tivoli, 1862 ca., albumen salted paper, Alinari Archives, Florence

James Anderson, Roman Forum, Campo Vaccino, 1852 ca., salted paper, Alinari Archives, Florence

Giorgio Sommer, “Capri. Faraglioni”, 1870-1880, albumen print on paper, Alinari Archives, Florence

Robert Rive, "Catania. Cliffs of the Cyclopes (Faraglioni)”, 1865-1875 ca., albumen print on paper, Alinari Archives, Florence

Fratelli Alinari, "Selinunte. Temple of Juno”, 1895 ca., albumen print on paper, Alinari Archives-Alinari albumen prints archive, Florence

Fratelli Alinari Fotografi presso Luigi Bardi, Santa Trinita Bridge, 1856-1857, salted paper, Alinari Archive-album Collection, Florence

Stabilimento Giacomo Brogi, "Amalfi. Panorama of the Grotto of S. Cristofano", 1880, albumen print on paper, Alinari Archives, Florence

The photographs of Italy along the routes traced by the Grand Tour restore the image of a country in which the synthesis between art and nature, beauty, culture and history reaches its peak. And the gaze, whether it relaxes in the wide and peaceful panoramic views, or glances at the ruins and gardens, does not fail to nourish its aesthetic satisfaction. These photographs follow the romantic taste of the educated and refined traveler, and are enriched with tones and shades, shadows and effects that anticipate the pictorial trend.

From the pioneers of the daguerreotype such as Pierre-Ambroise Richebourg and Girault de Prangey, who created precious panoramic views, to amateurs, to the ardent supporters of the use of paper negatives, such as Giacomo Caneva, up to professionals of the second half of the nineteenth century.

In the golden age of travel photography, many foreign photographers settled in Italy, such as MacPherson, James Anderson, Giorgio Sommer and Robert Rive. The fortunes of the ateliers grow, among which those of the Alinari brothers and Giacomo Brogi stand out, fundamental in defining the visual culture of the Bel Paese, which they export in a true compositional style. Images that have been handed down motionless for centuries, well established in the visual memory.

The dark room: negatives and transparencies

Pompeo Bondini (attr.), Temple of Hercules Victor known as the Temple of Vesta in Rome, 1850 ca., paper negative, Alinari Archives, Florence

Frédéric Flachéron, Villa del Vascello on the Janiculum Hill after the siege of Rome during the Roman Republic, 1849, paper negative, Alinari Archives, Florence

Wilhelm von Gloeden, Cloister of San Domenico in Taormina, 1890-1900 ca., silver gelatin dry glass plate negative, Alinari Archives-von Gloeden archive, Florence

Henrie Chouanard,Lake Carezza with the Latemar mountains, 1930-1935 ca., autochrome on film, Alinari Archives-Chouanard archive, Florence

Giorgio Roster, “Colouring the sky at sunset”, 1872-1921 ca., hand-coloured glass slide, Alinari Archives-Roster archive, Florence

Unknown author, “Torpedo explosion. January 1899. Spezia”, Jan. 1899, hand-coloured glass slide, Alinari Archives-Roster archive, Florence

Unknown author, “Monte Rosa Group from the Quintino Sella Hut”, Gressoney- La-Trinitè, January 1895, hand-coloured glass slide, Alinari Archives-Roster archive, Florence

Unknown author, “Etna. Eruption of 1892 (19 August)”, Sicily August, 19th, 1892, hand-coloured glass slide, Alinari Archives-Roster archive, Florence

Transparency is that common thread which, in photography, intertwines history with technique and defines one of its specific traits: innate reproducibility. But transparency is itself vision, and can become the subject and also the object of photography.

The calotypes, primordial negatives on paper, albeit so fragile, express an intense drama in their black skies, and a spectral unreality in the subjects represented. A completely different transparency is the vision of Henrie Chouanard, who lingers among flowery meadows and mountain paths softened by pastel shades, excellently rendered by autochrome, a pioneering color technique in photography.

The negative on glass, especially if of a large format as for the Wilhelm von Gloeden's 30x40 cm plates, conveys the sense of precision, of the richness of the detail, of the elegance in the line engraved by the light. Such specific characteristics of the photographic medium made it the privileged instrument of observation since its origins. As it was for Giorgio Roster, among the first to investigate with rigor - both scientific and aesthetic - in the fileds of science and photography.

Towards the twentieth century

Wilhelm von Gloeden, "Elegies", Taormina, 1900, photoengraving, Alinari Archives-von Gloeden archive, Florence

Wilhelm von Gloeden, Greek Theatre, Etna in the background, Taormina, 1900 ca., albumen salted paper, Alinari Archives-von Gloeden archive, Florence

Wilhelm von Gloeden, The Cathedral destroyed by the Calabrian-Sicilian earthquake, Messina 1908, albumen print on paper, Alinari Archives-von Gloeden archive, Florence

Vittorio Alinari, “Island of S. Pietro - Sardinia. Trachytic rocks”, Isola di San Pietro, May 26-June 12, 1913, modern silver salt print on paper from silver gelatin dry glass plate negative, Alinari Archives, Florence

Vittorio Alinari, Cascine Park, Florence, 1900 ca., photoengraving, Alinari Archives, Florence

Domenico Riccardo Peretti Griva, Trees, Piemonte, 1910-1920 ca., transferred bromolium, Alinari Archives, Florence

Luciano Morpurgo, “Villa Borghese”, Roma 1910-1920 ca., transferred bromolium, Alinari Archives-Morpurgo archive, Florence

Carlo Baravalle, Spires of the Dome, Milan, 1920-1930 ca., gelatin bromide silver print on paper, Alinari Archives-Baravalle archive, Florence

Edith Arnaldi, View of the Civita Castellana plain with Monte Soratte, 1936, gelatin silver salt print on paper, Alinari Archives-Edith Arnaldi archive, Florence

In the years in which the rising industrial society take the place of rural culture, it was not only the world that changed, but also its image. The large and peaceful spaces expressed by the nineteenth-century panoramas shatter into a reality made up of details, points of view, experiments. The vision is reversed, showing us a different world, seen through the author's eyes.

Wilhelm Von Gloeden's Taormina is mythological, the theatrical representation of his imagination. Imperishable archaeological ruins, a motionless sea, eternally young boys. Naked as nature is, undressed and bodily.

Vittorio Alinari, a brilliant entrepreneur and talented photographer, measures himself with technical mastery and a remarkable compositional talent in giving shape and balance to images, as shown in his trip to Sardinia, where he records with precision and stylistic rigor the salient features of an island that was still exotic and impervious at the time.

In the wake of pictorial and technical experiments, we find the works by Peretti Griva and Luciano Morpurgo. While Carlo Baravalle plays with points of view and shots to create effective atmospheres, Edith Arnaldi discreetly places herself at a distance, and lets her subjects tell about themselves.

New forms of realism

Alberto Lattuada, Teulié street, Milan, 1939-1940, modern silver salt print on paper from silver gelatin cellulose acetate film, Alinari Archives-Lattuada archive, Florence

Alberto Lattuada, Panorama, Genova, 1941, modern silver salt print on paper from silver gelatin cellulose acetate film, Alinari Archives-Lattuada archive, Florence

Fosco Maraini, Tavoliere delle Puglie crossed by the railway near Spinazzola, 1950-1952 ca., modern silver salt print from silver gelatin cellulose acetate film, Photo by Fosco Maraini/Property ofGabinetto Vieusseux © Alinari Archives

Fosco Maraini, View of Tricarico, 1952, modern silver salt print from silver gelatin cellulose acetate film, Photo by Fosco Maraini/Property ofGabinetto Vieusseux © Alinari Archives

Fosco Maraini, Mountaineering in the Capo Gallo Nature Reserve, Capo Gallo, Palermo, 1950-1956 ca., modern silver salt print from silver gelatin cellulose acetate film, Photo by Fosco Maraini/Property ofGabinetto Vieusseux © Alinari Archives

Vincenzo Balocchi, “Pitigliano”, Grosseto, 1960 ca., gelatin bromide silver print on paper, Alinari Archives-Balocchi archive, Florence

Vincenzo Balocchi, “Landscape in Tuscany”, 1958, gelatin bromide silver print on paper, Alinari Archives-Balocchi archive, Florence

Vincenzo Balocchi, Cypress, Volterra (Pisa), 1955-1965, gelatin bromide silver print on paper, Alinari Archives-Balocchi archive, Florence

Luciano Ferri, “Along the embankment”, Italy, 1950-1955 ca., gelatin bromide silver print on paper, Alinari Archives-Villani archive, Florence

Luciano Ferri, Tree in the snow, Italy, 1950-1955 ca., gelatin bromide silver print on paper, Alinari Archives-Villani archive, Florence

A new landscape is the protagonist of the images of the first half of the last century. A landscape bathed in the blood of two wars, which has seen misery, hatred and the desire to start over. And it is precisely from the suburbs that Alberto Lattuada resumes his narration of the world, and of life. Paying attention to an uneventful everyday life, to simple, familiar gestures that don't make history.

Fosco Maraini's images, like visual monuments, celebrate beauty, majestic nature, the warm sunlight of the South of Italy, in a dialogue with culture, history and the men who are part of it.

Vincenzo Balocchi uses the landscape as a palette, revealing it in its tonal refinements and compositional lines. The subjects are an excuse for undertaking a visual journey towards the aesthetic abstraction of the world.

Luciano Ferri of Studio Villani shows us a silent, slow landscape in which a suspended time is celebrated, where men, women and animals silently contemplate moments of stillness and, perhaps, of prayer.