1298
also because of its geographical and cultural vicinity to
France. Here the Unione Fotografi ca Italiana had been in
existence since 1879, a longstanding association, whose
activity was widely known.
The work of these fi rst associations was mainly geared
toward promoting meetings and information exchanges,
particularly regarding technical innovations, as well
as the dissemination of treatises and publications and
the organization of training courses. The latter activity
turned out to be essential, especially due to the absence
of any offi cial photography schools. Apart from some
sporadic private initiatives, such as the Photographic
Institute of Brindisi founded by Antonio Montagna, the
teaching of Antonio Chimenti at the University of Rome
(as of 1842), Semplicini in Florence (around 1850), and
Ottavio Baratti at the Technical Institute of Milan in
1865, and the “Municipal evening school in chemistry
for factory workers” in Turin, an authentic School of
Photography was only established in Florence in 1905,
following more than two decades of discussion, sup-
ported by the Società Fotografi ca Italiana.
The year 1887 was decisive: in Florence, during the
works of the jury of the 1st Italian Photography Exposi-
tion, the foundations were laid for the constitution of
the fi rst national association. The Società Fotografi ca
Italiana (SFI) was offi cially inaugurated two years later.
The founders included many professional photogra-
phers, including Vittorio Alinari, Carlo Brogi (member
of the Board of Directors), and the senator Paolo Man-
tegazza—known for his use of photography in a series
of studies in anthropology and ethnology—who became
its president. In October 1889, the SFI began publishing
its own Bulletin, which continued until 1914.
One of the most important activities of the SFI was
the organization of annual conferences, where partici-
pants discussed topics related to the history and tech-
nique of photography, its applications in a broad range
of disciplines, and its relationships with art and custom.
Both at the central level and through local groups, the
SFI organized “photographic walks” and projections,
and systematically collected Italian and foreign pub-
lications dedicated to photography. One of its most
ambitious projects was to create a national museum of
photography. Success came in 1902, with the opening
of a Photography Archive at the Royal Uffi zi Galleries
in Florence, promoted by Corrado Ricci and encouraged
by the Touring Club Italiano.
Around the SFI, many amateur photography clubs
began to appear, often frequented by professional pho-
tographers as well.
In 1890, the Circolo Dilettanti Fotografi was set up
in Turin, and many of its members were present at the
photography exhibit in Venice in 1891. In 1892, the
club participated in the organization of the Exhibit for
the Promotion of the Fine Arts in Turin, in which over
fi fty photographers participated. The following year, in
conjunction with the Turin branch of the Club Alpino
Italiano (CAI), the association opened an exhibit of the
works of amateur photographers, members of the CAI
and other touring clubs from various Italian regions. In
this regard, it should be underscored that photography
assumed growing importance in the life of this type of
association (CAI, Touring Club, Unione Escursionisti,
and so on), and that these organizations, through the cre-
ation of thematic archives, expositions, and particularly
magazines with a wide circulation, made a substantial
contribution to the creation of a new image of the Ital-
ian landscape. No traces remain of the activity of the
Circolo Dilettanti Fotografi after 1895, but it is known
that many of the members converged, together with a
group of professionals, in the more important Società
Fotografi ca Subalpina. Founded in Turin in 1898 during
the 1st National Congress of Photography, the Society
was composed of about fi fty members.
A branch of the SFI, composed of amateurs and pro-
fessionals, was established in 1892 in Bologna, followed
in 1896 by the Società dei Dilettanti Fotografi. The
dissolution of these associations spawned the Circolo
Fotografi co Bolognese in 1900, the oldest body still in
existence today.
Similarly, in Milan, the Circolo Fotografi co Lombar-
do (1889) was established, as well as the Associazione
Lombarda, which in 1893 numbered as many as four
hundred members. In Milan, an important industrial
and commercial center, the fi rst national journal of
photography, La Camera Oscura, began publication
in 1863, directed by Ottavio Baratti and subsequently
by Luigi Borlinetto. The journal published essays by
Italian and foreign scholars, with a prevalently techni-
cal-scientifi c orientation, though often included topics
of a political-cultural nature as well. But the experience
that left the greatest mark on photography in Milan in
the second half of the 19th century, in terms of both
technical research and interest in the new creative lan-
guages, was Il Progresso Fotografi co, a periodical cre-
ated by Mario Gandini and Rodolfo Namias. By 1894,
Namias had published more than thirty manuals and in
1895 he organized the Laboratory School of Applied
Photochemistry.
In all the major expositions and conferences dedicat-
ed to photography in the last two decades of the century,
the Istituto Geografi co Militare was a constant presence.
Its Photography Department was set up only in 1896, but
the collections made by the military contained a large
number of photographs made prior to that date, added
to which was a large quantity of documentary material
of geographic and ethnographic interest.
The involvement of Italian photography in exhibition
events began with a sporadic presence in the general ex-
positions, in which photography was initially exhibited