|
Click on dates to see chronology:
|
| The Chronology |
1982 - Claudio de Polo Saibanti enters Alinari as Councilor for Administration and General Manager of the Firm. He takes over the presidency in 1983. The traditional activities are totally renewed with new exhibitions and the buying back of parts of the historical premises.
1985 - Complementary to the Archive is the founding of the Fratelli Alinari Museum of the History of Photography, the first in Italy, with an exhibition space of 270 sq. m. located in the historical Palazzo Rucellai. Today, in its historical premises, the Museum has in its keeping around
800,000
vintage prints, as well as several thousand cameras, instruments, albums, frames and other materials related to photography and its history. An integral part of the Museum is the Library specialized in the History of Photography, with over 16,000 books. From 1985 to 1997 the Museum had 56 exhibitions in its exhibition premises in Via della Vigna Nuova in addition to the 225 promoted up to date in other Italian and foreign premises, all accompanied by catalogues. The following year George Tatge begins to supervise the photographic campaigns regularly programmed and conducted throughout Italy.
1986 - Numerous other archives of fundamental importance for the history of photography, of industry, the customs of Italy as well as other fields are acquired, such as Michetti, von Gloeden, Balocchi, Wulz, Possar and the Villani archive in Bologna composed of
500,000 pictures ranging in time from 1914 to 1980. New photographic campaigns add to the archives that at present numbers over 2,250,000 glass-plate and film negatives, in various formats, in black/white. Another 100,000 color photos, 350,000 other modern photographic prints are added to the picture fund, which together with 800,000 vintage prints makes a grand total of 3,500,000 pictures.
1987 - The site of the historic premises of the Stabilimento Alinari, formerly
"Via Nazionale 6" is renamed "Largo Fratelli Alinari
15".
1996 - Alinari takes over the exclusive management of the Istituto Luce with its over 350,000 photos, followed by that of the Ansaldo Historical Archive (1997) with 200,000 photos, in addition to the Photographic Archive of the Touring Club Italian (1994) with its 400,000 photos. Thanks to further agreements, the following are today represented or managed: the Roger Viollet archive with 7,000,000 photos, the Courtauld Institute archive with 2,500,000 photos, the Marburg archive with 1,500,000 photos, the Bridgeman archive of 200,000 photos, the Interphoto archive of 8,000,000 photos, the Rizzoli archive with 15,000 photos, the Arthotek archive with 22,000 photos,
the Finsiel archive with 5.000 photos and in 2004 the Rai Teche archive with 32,700 photos, for a grand total of
21,224,900 photographs managed or represented.
1997 - A specific agreement between Alinari and the Ministry for Cultural Assets and Activities makes Alinari sole authorized concessionaire for the sale of reproduction rights of photographs reproducing the works of art that belong to the Italian State. Important photographic campaigns in color are conducted in the Italian Museums.
1998 - Work is begun on the cataloguing system and research
'thesaurus' together with the digitizing of the Firm's photographic archive, which will lead to the creation in 2001 of Alinari On-Line. The Fratelli Alinari Foundation for the History of Photography is charged with administering to the Museo Nazionale di Storia della Fotografia – MAF (National Museum of the History of Photography) then being constituted.
2001 - The digital catalogue is inaugurated with consultation on educational and business web sites of over 200,000 pictures available and searchable on line for the B2B, plus 100,000 for the Educational.
2002 - The 150th anniversary of the activity of Fratelli Alinari is celebrated. The collections owned, completely inventoried, today add up to 3,500,000 photographs, making the firm an uncontested leader on a world level of nineteenth-century photography, in the sector of art and in that of Italian history and industry.
2003 - The exhibition celebrating Alinari’s 150 years, Fratelli Alinari, Photographers in Florence. 150 years that illustrated the world 1852/2002, is inaugurated in Palazzo Strozzi. Hosts of visitors came to the exhibition which was well received by write-ups and reviews on a world level.
2004 - The creation, no later than 2005, in Florence of the new premises of the Fratelli Alinari National Museum of the History of Photography is officially announced. The new museum will be in the former Leopoldine convent, in Piazza Santa Maria Novella, with spaces for exhibitions, museum displays, and the creation of an educational section.
The on-line sector continues to develop and grow with a constant increase in the number of pictures that can be consulted.
|
|
