Artistic masters beyond the renaissance inside Alinari Museum.
Of course the Uffizi is the number one museum for tourists because of the large number of Renaissance masterpieces, but because it is so “touristy”, frustration always takes part in that experience. But in the Alinari Museum in Piazza Santa Maria Novella, we can see masters of another medium: photography. The Alinari brothers were the ones who pushed photography to modern Italy, and their photos of Florence in the 19th century still resonate with their delicate vitality.
The museum values both the history of photography and the constantly developing genre of photography in the contemporary world. A hallway upstairs demonstrates the camera’s physical change by decade and model for over 100 years, from a mere pinhole camera to the digital single lens reflex. But on the ground floor, current artist Patrick Mimran’s exhibition questions the very idea of art and presses against expectations with his terrifyingly surreal photographs. His series include grotesquely melted baby doll faces, neon pink trees, and desolated parking garages.
The quiet atmosphere allows for sincere contemplation of the photos. This is in contrast to the rushed desperation in the Uffizi and Accademia to get photos of Botticelli’s Birth of Venus Michelangelo’s David. It is easy to pigeonhole photography as a modern mechanical invention, but the Alinari museum illustrates the humanity behind the lens.
Be sure to also look at the photo prints in the store at the base of the museum. The museum still owns many of the negatives of the Alinari brothers and still produces authentic prints of Florence city scenes with which digital cameras cannot even compete.
For more information, head over to the museum’s website.
Article written by AJ Kiyoizumi.
