Tradizione e modernità: la doppia anima della Società Fotografica Italiana (1889-1915)

Abstract

This paper focuses on the history of the Italian Photographic Society (SFI), during the first decade of the 1900. The study of this Society, struggled between tradition and modernity, brought up several issues concerning the reflection about the remarkable role of reviews in the development of Italian photography. Conscious of the necessity to create a beautiful and modern journal, the SFI tried to renovate the structure of its “Bullettino della Società Fotografica Italiana” taking contacts with the typographer Raffaello Bertieri and its magazine “Il Risorgimento Grafico”. Through the study of the “Bullettino”, completed with documents found at the Archivio della SFI in Florence, it has been possible to investigate the reasons which led to this unsuccessful change and the collapse of this society.