An enormous archive composed of a vast collection of photographs and integrated by a rich library is the fruit of passion we are referring to. Zannier has gathered it over many years of work as a teacher and of research as a devotee of photography.

Assuring its presence in the city, in 2007 Fondazione Venezia has acquired this important legacy composed of twelve thousand volumes, as well as invitations, posters, brochures dedicated to photography events since the post-war period, magazines and correspondence exchanged with the future masters of photography and the protagonists of Italian culture, as well as roughly three thousand original photographs, from daguerreotypes to digital images, vintage and in small format.

As a result of an intense effort to increase the value of this heritage, Fondazione Venezia has given shape to a vast cultural project including an exhibition, a series of workshops, meetings and seminars dedicated to young people and photography’s amateurs. To allow public fruition and knowledge the library and the archive have been catalogued and filed. The book collection has been lent to the Art and Design library of the IUAV University in order to guarantee full access to students and researchers.

After careful examination, restoration and digitalization of all originals, the photographic archive has already been shown in Milan and will shortly be shown in Venice in the framework of an ambitious exhibition project. Considered as the father of Italian photography, Italo Zannier has passionately gathered a unique collection of images, creating in more than fifty years an astonishing ensemble that will be presented in Venice.

“But please, don’t call it “collection”, it is an archive, a working archive”, so Zannier cares to explain. The exhibition “The fury of images” (il furore delle immagini) will be shown at Bevilacqua La Masa’s exhibition venue in San Marco square. The show is intended as a precious and unique opportunity to look at this material largely unknown to the public and to pay tribute to such extraordinary work.

Curated by Denis Curtis, this retrospective exhibition tells the history of Italian photography since the beginning up to the present. Two hundred and sixty images accompanied by a series of books and photograph albums will allow for an historical understanding of the works in Zannier’s archive.

Through the passionate “story” told by the collection, the exhibition outlines main aesthetic and technical steps made by this “wonderful invention” (i.e. photography). At the beginning of the show we find Italian authors active at the end of the Eighteenth century, Carlo Naya’ portentous and oversize (for the time) print, called “Venice in the moonlight” shot in 1870 and an extremely rare 1855 daguerreotype.

Albumen prints and salted paper prints of the beginning of the century are shown as well. The exhibition continues with an in-depth examination of some issues related to Italian photography during the Thirties and Forties and to “Neorealism” (including pictures by “la Gondola”, “la bussola”, the “Misa” and “Gruppo Friulano”).

Following the exhibition proposes more contemporary examples with images by Paolo Gioli, Franco Vaccari, Nino Migliori, referring to a time when photography was debating about itself and its own expression.

Furthermore, photographs by Luigi Ghirri, Gabriele Basilico, Guido Guidi, Mimmo Jodice, Mario Giacomelli, Franco Fontana and many other protagonists of Italian photography will be on show. With the collaboration of Angela Vettese, Denis Curtis had tried to build an exhibition in which images and texts are in dialogue.

Between the most interesting materials are letters, some confidential ones, sent to several masters of photography such as Paolo Monti, Mario Giacomelli and Tazio Secchiaroli. Together with Fellini, Secchiaroli positively acknowledged Zannier’s book on Paparazzi.

He thanked Zannier since he had referred to him in an article as the “Dolce Vita” photographer (even before Fellini had made his movie); A book by Nadar with an original signature of the author; works by Marco Antonio Cellio, who probably before any other invented a technique very similar to photography. Expressly made for the show, a documentary film on Zannier’s collection and the main protagonists of Italian photography will offer further information.

In collaboration with Contrasto photographic agency, Fondazione Venezia has announced an admission free photographic competition “Sguardi sul presente” open to all High School students of the Province of Venice. The competition allows students to express their interest in photography, seen both as an artistic medium and as a documentary tool. A jury of experts will select three winners in the category “one shot” and one in the category “portfolio”.