Over 60 thousand photos in the mud. Memories of life, especially family life, which seemed irretrievably lost, and which instead were saved thanks to the patient, painstaking and gratuitous work of Maria Laura Argnani from Faenza, her husband Marco Bondi, a photographer by profession, and her son Francesco Bondi, also ‘he is a well-known photographer. A real undertaking for which, in addition to months of work, strong technical skills and a certain amount of empathy were also needed, because, as Argnani herself explains: “In the recovery we treated recent photos but also historical shots: the children, the war, the history of Faenza, everything that can be contained in people’s drawers. The eyes have been enriched with an important memory”.
Nearly 9 out of 10 photos, according to the recovery team, were saved. “Initially it was a test for us – continues Maria Laura Argnani –, but then Francesco’s mastery gave us the opportunity to refine the recovery technique. We had some difficulties due to the space and above all the time. In fact, timeliness is was fundamental. Furthermore, the recovery is continuing during this period.” Precisely the arduous work of conservative recovery, the techniques adopted and the tools used to save the photographs will become an exhibition set up inside the Hall of Flags of Palazzo Manfredi, in Piazza del Popolo in Faenza, from 8 May next. It will be called ‘Hanging Memories’, a name that originates from the photos that were removed, descaled, washed and hung on the clothesline. The exhibition, curated by Michele Argnani and Gian Marco Magnani of the Fototeca Manfrediana association, boasts the patronage of the municipality of Faenza and will have the sector giant Fujifilm as its technical partner. “‘Memories hanging’ – concludes Argnani – contains our manual work but is also an internal journey. It will also serve to explain the technique they used and the materials. The collaboration with Fujifilm Italia was born through my critical thinking on safeguarding techniques and on washing the photos. I took the liberty of sending them a small note and from the company’s response a technical collaboration was born. Among other things, they informed me that very few people in the world have carried out recovery work of this type. We in Faenza and another photographer in Japan, who did the same thing after the 2011 tsunami”.
