Fratelli Alinari
Encyclopedia
Fratelli Alinari is the world's oldest photographic
firm founded in Florence, Italy in 1852. Its archives contains 5.5 million photographs, ranging from daguerreotype
s to modern digital photos from around the world.
, photos of art and historical monuments
Today Alinari is the guardian of a photographic corpus which has few equals (with a patrimony of its own of over 5,500,000 pictures, historical and contemporary, ranging from vintage prints, glass plate negatives to film and fotocolors), and is responsible for the management of an ongoing program of exhibitions and publishing. It can supply iconographical research services and manages both Italian and foreign photographic archives, constantly increasing its "image-bank", in part already on microfiches and now also on digital supports which will be available for consultation on-line. Fratelli Alinari is a leader firm on a national and international level in the field of photography, images and therefore of communication.
Alinari provides photographic publishing and its Art Printworks still uses the artisan technique of collotype
on paper and silver plates from photographic images.
From 2007, the Museum of Multimedia and History of Photography (MNAF) is open to the public in Florence, Italy, providing a special service on photographic exhibitions, permanent show of material about the history of photography, and education/training services for students and people with disabilities (there is a section with 3D images where blind people can touch 3D artifacts and understand the images in a unique way).
Alinari on-line and the restoration laboratory
In order to make the images available to a greater number of persons, Alinari has established an on-line search system of its photographic archives, employing a system of iconographic classification produced in collaboration with the University of Florence
with over Alinari on-line 330,000 images.
European Projects
In 1994 the firm began numerous initiatives for collaboration in technological and cultural projects in Europe. Among the most important are Aquarelle, Artline, Victor, Imprimatur, aceMedia, Euridice, 2Kan, Orpheus, Ermione, RegNet, TNT, Migrator 2000, eCHASE, aceMedia, Multimatch and today: MILE, Tripod, Eurogene, Fotomemoria,CITER and today GLOCAL, VisitoTuscany and CONVERGENCE. The Archive is today very active in Italy and Europe in several research and education research and marketing validation project, providing valuable contribution mainly in the following domains: watermarking, digital rights management
, content provider, 3D applications, image enhancement, intelligent content retrieval, web semantic and ontologies, distance learning, preservation and image restoration
, validation, testing, exploitation, multimedia content supply.
Photography
Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...
firm founded in Florence, Italy in 1852. Its archives contains 5.5 million photographs, ranging from daguerreotype
Daguerreotype
The daguerreotype was the first commercially successful photographic process. The image is a direct positive made in the camera on a silvered copper plate....
s to modern digital photos from around the world.
Founding
In 1852, Leopoldo Alinari, with his brothers Giuseppe and Romualdo, founded the photographic workshop specializing in photographic portraiturePortrait photography
Portrait photography or portraiture is the capture by means of photography of the likeness of a person or a small group of people , in which the face and expression is predominant. The objective is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the subject...
, photos of art and historical monuments
Today
Fratelli Alinari SPA, merged in the year 2007 with the Sole 24 Ore and it created a new company called Alinari 24 ORE. It is the oldest foundation in the world still active in the field of photography, and more generally in the sphere of the image and communication, was founded in Florence in 1852.Today Alinari is the guardian of a photographic corpus which has few equals (with a patrimony of its own of over 5,500,000 pictures, historical and contemporary, ranging from vintage prints, glass plate negatives to film and fotocolors), and is responsible for the management of an ongoing program of exhibitions and publishing. It can supply iconographical research services and manages both Italian and foreign photographic archives, constantly increasing its "image-bank", in part already on microfiches and now also on digital supports which will be available for consultation on-line. Fratelli Alinari is a leader firm on a national and international level in the field of photography, images and therefore of communication.
Alinari provides photographic publishing and its Art Printworks still uses the artisan technique of collotype
Collotype
Collotype is a dichromate-based photographic process invented by Alphonse Poitevin in 1856. and was used for large volume mechanical printing before the existence of cheaper offset lithography. It can produce results difficult to distinguish from metal-based photographic prints because of its...
on paper and silver plates from photographic images.
From 2007, the Museum of Multimedia and History of Photography (MNAF) is open to the public in Florence, Italy, providing a special service on photographic exhibitions, permanent show of material about the history of photography, and education/training services for students and people with disabilities (there is a section with 3D images where blind people can touch 3D artifacts and understand the images in a unique way).
Alinari on-line and the restoration laboratory
In order to make the images available to a greater number of persons, Alinari has established an on-line search system of its photographic archives, employing a system of iconographic classification produced in collaboration with the University of Florence
University of Florence
The University of Florence is a higher study institute in Florence, central Italy. One of the largest and oldest universities in the country, it consists of 12 faculties...
with over Alinari on-line 330,000 images.
European Projects
In 1994 the firm began numerous initiatives for collaboration in technological and cultural projects in Europe. Among the most important are Aquarelle, Artline, Victor, Imprimatur, aceMedia, Euridice, 2Kan, Orpheus, Ermione, RegNet, TNT, Migrator 2000, eCHASE, aceMedia, Multimatch and today: MILE, Tripod, Eurogene, Fotomemoria,CITER and today GLOCAL, VisitoTuscany and CONVERGENCE. The Archive is today very active in Italy and Europe in several research and education research and marketing validation project, providing valuable contribution mainly in the following domains: watermarking, digital rights management
Digital rights management
Digital rights management is a class of access control technologies that are used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals with the intent to limit the use of digital content and devices after sale. DRM is any technology that inhibits uses of digital content that...
, content provider, 3D applications, image enhancement, intelligent content retrieval, web semantic and ontologies, distance learning, preservation and image restoration
Image restoration
Image restoratio is The operation of taking a corrupted/noisy image and estimating the clean original image. Corruption may come in many forms such as motion blur, noise, and camera misfocus....
, validation, testing, exploitation, multimedia content supply.