Archivio Publifoto Intesa Sanpaolo 1939-1981. L’Italia e il mondo

Following on the heels of the exhibition entitled “Nel mirino. L’Italia e il mondo nell’Archivio Publifoto Intesa Sanpaolo 1939-1981” (In Focus: Italy and the world in the Intesa Sanpaolo Publifoto Archive 1939-1981), the book retraces the history of Italy’s first private photojournalism agency; founded by Vincenzo Carrese in 1937 as “Foto Agenzia Keystone di Carrese Vincenzo”, it changed its name to “Publifoto fotografie da pubblicare” in 1939.

Having reached its height during the golden age of photojournalism, Publifoto was also a superb training ground for many young photographers who went on to pursue a career outside the agency: Fedele Toscani, Tino Petrelli, Peppino Giovi and Carlo Ancillotti, to name but a few.

Divided into sections like those of a newspaper – news, culture and showbusiness, society and lifestyle, sport, international – the book covers some of the key events of the 20th century through a series of historic and, in some cases, rarely published photographs.

The history of Publifoto Milano runs alongside the history of its Archives, acquired by Intesa Sanpaolo in 2015 and consisting of around seven million photos dating from the early 1930s to the 1990s.