The desperation linked to the loss of one’s home is something that the people of Ravenna unfortunately know well, it is what they found themselves experiencing a year ago, in the days offlood that hit Emilia-Romagna. Adding to the tragedy of the situation is the loss of a lifetime’s memories. However, a photography studio in Ravenna has decided to get busy saving the photographic heritage of families affected by the flood, restoring entire albums full of images for free. And from this project an exhibition was born.
Over 60 thousand photos recovered from the flood
The exhibition that starts from this project will be titled “Hanging Memories” because “hanging” are the photos that are left to dry in an attempt to recover them. Actually, as he explains Maria Laura Argnani, photographer, the techniques for restoring photos covered in mud are many and complex. With her son Francesco and her husband Marco Bondi, also photographers, she researched the techniques to use to recover entire photographic albums, some dating back to the nineteenth century.
«Really desperate people have come to our shop, the mud had left nothing, the only thing saved? Boxes soaked in mud where family albums were placed”, says Argnani. As a business they asked themselves what they could do to help flood victims and have since saved more 61 thousand photographs recovered from mud bags and washed one by one.
They did not receive any funds for the project, the flood victims brought the material and then the three photographers washed and sterilized the photographs out of their own pockets. The customer was only required to pay for the final album. There are many surprises, in addition to those reserved by the family heritage of hundreds of people. One above all: analogue photos from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries are better preserved than digital ones.
The exhibition will be held in Hall of Flags of Palazzo Manfredi in Ravenna and is made up of 36 large images selected from thousands.
LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW WITH MARIA LAURA ARGNANI:
