Fratelli Alinari. Photographers in Florence

The book tells us the story of the Alinari brothers, who began as engravers in the Bardi studio in Florence, and their passion for photography. Particular attention is given to the influence of the Paris ateliers on Leopoldo and the importance of the historical moment of the unification of Italy.
The cultural objectives and the working methods of the Florentine studio became a distinctive mark and were imitated throughout Europe. Before long the Alinari were thought of as the representatives of the Italian image in the world.
The second generation of photographers continued to profit from the knowledge acquired in the course of the years and developed new inventions and techniques, never losing sight of the programmatic guidelines still universally valid. The distinctive Alinari mark is there, no matter what the subject of the photograph may be.
The Alinari studio was also influenced by the other arts such as sculpture and architecture and their evolution. Nor does the photographic documentation disregard the more or lesser-known personalities, in addition to the scenes of everyday life and the world of work in the classic tradition of the veristic literature of Giovanni Verga and Grazia Deledda.
Photography is therefore here seen as a tool that bears witness to the history of a society and the revolutionary cultural changes that bridged two centuries.