Thanks to an agreement drawn up between the Fratelli Alinari, the Italian Touring Club and the Luce Institute, it will be possible, as from this year, to consult all the most important collections of photographs in Italy in one single network.
The photographic Archives of the Italian Touring Club contain about 400.000 photos. Apart from many photos in black and white and by unknown authors (members who donated their snaps to the Touring Club), a large number also bear the signatures of various Italian photographers who were commissioned by the Touring Club, from the 1930's onwards, to carry out a series of photographic services.
The Fratelli Alinari will not only be transferring all this material onto microchips but also taking over its commercial management, and will be opening one of the largest offices for iconographic consultation and research in Europe at the head office of the Touring Club in Milan.
System for transfer onto microchip
The Luce Institute, founded in 1924, has always concentrated on producing and distributing films and documentaries.
As a result, its archives have grown over the years and now contain over eight thousand hours of material on film: Luce Newsreels, Settimane Incom and documentaries that cover everything from history of art to cinema and sport.
It also owns photographic archives containing about a million images that document the history of Italy, in its various aspects, from 1918 to 1960. The Pastorel, Dial and Amoruso collections also form part of the archives.
Here again the Fratelli Alinari will be carrying out the transfer of the photos and their titling onto microchips, as well as the commercialization of this enormous patrimony.
