Alinari National Museum of Photography

Overview

While the Museum of the History of Photography has collected material evidence of the work of the photographer and of the artistic evolution of photography in its over 160 years of history, it has also assembled the instruments responsible for the perpetuation of what can rightly be considered the finest pictures of an epoch. The importance of this Museum is thus also revealed in the collection of cameras, of advertising, of paper documents, of frames and all those objects connected to the photograph which can be considered an integral part of its history.

Tour details

MNAF Alinari National Museum of Photography
Piazza Santa Maria Novella 14a rosso
Florence

Group reservations must be made with a minimum of 1 working day notice. Reservations are limited to 20 persons maximum.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: After succesfully completing a reservation, you will receive two e- mails: the copy of your order (immediately after submitting your order) and the confirmation mail (one working day after). In order to receive them, please make sure you insert your e-mail address correctly and check that your anti-spam filter or antivirus are not blocking mails from our address reservations@waf.it. Special attention for AOL mailbox users.

PLEASE NOTICE: Confirmed time is not always the same time you requested; museum automatically confirms the closest available time on the same date if requested time is sold out.

Opening hours:
10 am - 7 pm
Closed Wednesdays The ticket office closes 30 minutes prior to closing time

Cancellation Policy:
For cancellations once a confirmation code has been assigned to the reservation, and for no shows, we can refund cost of unused tickets minus service fee (reservation fee and online booking fee).

Details

In order to carry out its fundamental role of the safeguarding, promotion and valorization of everything which falls into the ambit of photography and its history, in September of 1998 the firm constituted the “Fratelli Alinari. Foundation for the History of Photography” which, together with the City of Florence and the Ente Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze, promoted the MNAF, Alinari National Museum of Photography in its current premises of Piazza Santa Maria Novella.

The Fratelli Alinari Archives, founded in 1852, and the collection of the Fratelli Alinari Museum of the History of Photography established in 1985 and completed with a gallery in 1997 in Palazzo Rucellai on Via della Vigna Nuova, are not only dedicated to the history of photography at Fratelli Alinari but the history of photography in general in Italy and all over the world from the nineteenth centrury to today, serving an important role in the research, safeguarding and promotion of the medium.

Today there are over 2,750,000 b/w and color negatives on various supports in the collections, from plates to color photos, and over 900,000 vintage prints, including salted paper, albumen, bromide prints and calotype negatives, daguerreotypes, etc...., many preserved in the collection of 6,000 original albums. These are works by the greatest nineteenth- and twentieth-century photographers, both Italian and non-Italian, but also by many other less-known professional and amateur photographers.

While the Museum of the History of Photography has collected material evidence of the work of the photographer and of the artistic evolution of photography in its over 160 years of history, it has also assembled the instruments responsible for the perpetuation of what can rightly be considered the finest pictures of an epoch. The importance of this Museum is thus also revealed in the collection of cameras, of advertising, of paper documents, of frames and all those objects connected to the photograph which can be considered an integral part of its history.

Another ‘vital’ sector of the Museum is the Library specialized in the History of Photography, with its over 20,000 books dedicated to the sector, from the first descriptions of Daguerre’s new invention to the best known technical manuals of the nineteenth century, from European and international photographic journals, such as Stieglitz’s famous “Camera Work”, to the most recent catalogues of photographic exhibits by the Institutions and Museums who dedicate their activity to this field.

Prices

Tickets: (include exhibit and Museum)

Full price ticket

Reduced price tickets:groups of at least 10 persons, special agreements, military, school children, over 65, university students, residents in Florence, families, users of the audio guide, special agreements, the disabled, Mondays

Special reduced price tickets: schools

Free tickets: Children 5 and under, holders of a membership card

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