Exhibitions

Early XX century photographs from the collection of ROSPHOTO

The present exhibition of photographs from Tomaso Filippi's album "Recollections of Venice" introduces the new acquisition to the collection of the State Centre of Photography. ROSPHOTO collection was founded in 2003 and now numbers about ten thousand items. Most of them are photographs of late XIX century, unique materials representing the world and Russian photography, change of artistic styles, development of photographic technique, evolution of technology.

The author of the photographs, Tomaso Filippi (1852 – 1948, Venice), is a well known Italian photographer who dedicated his work solely to his native city. His name is given to the Photography fund of the Institute of Reconstruction and Research of Venice.

Tomaso Filippi graduated from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Venice as graphic artist. In 1870 he started working in the atelier of Carlo Naja, one of the best known European photographers of the time. After Naja's death in 1882, Filippi continued working in his master's atelier and under his name. It is only in 1895 that he opened his own atelier in San Marco Square. Here he sold photographs of city views (already a traditional phenomenon) to tourists, shops and editors. At the same time he continuously photographed artworks in museums, galleries, cathedrals and palaces of Venice. It is these high quality reproductions that glorified the mastership of Tomaso Filippi and his individual style that were already highly valued by his contemporaries. Between 1895 and 1905, his interest was focused on reportage. Due to the use of advanced portable equipment he was very good in photographing genre scenes in the street.
In 1981, Filippi's daughter assigned her father's archive to IRE (The Institute of Reconstruction and Research of Venice) in accordance with his bequeathal to use the negatives and photographs for the preservation of his native city's cultural heritage.