While the Museum of the History of Photography has collected material evidence of the work of the photographer and of the artistic evolution of photography in its over 160 years of history, it has also assembled the instruments responsible for the perpetuation of what can rightly be considered the finest pictures of an epoch. The importance of this Museum is thus also revealed in the collection of cameras, of advertising, of paper documents, of frames and all those objects connected to the photograph which can be considered an integral part of its history.
Info & Booking
MNAF Alinari National Museum of Photography
Piazza Santa Maria Novella 14a rosso
Florence
Group reservations must be made with a minimum of 1 working day notice. Reservations are limited to 20 persons maximum.
IMPORTANT NOTICE: After succesfully completing a reservation, you will receive two e- mails: the copy of your order (immediately after submitting your order) and the confirmation mail (one working day after). In order to receive them, please make sure you insert your e-mail address correctly and check that your anti-spam filter or antivirus are not blocking mails from our address [email protected]. Special attention for AOL mailbox users.
PLEASE NOTICE: Confirmed time is not always the same time you requested; museum automatically confirms the closest available time on the same date if requested time is sold out.
Opening hours:
10 am - 7 pm
Closed Wednesdays The ticket office closes 30 minutes prior to closing time
Cancellation Policy:
For cancellations once a confirmation code has been assigned to the reservation, and for no shows, we can refund cost of unused tickets minus service fee (reservation fee and online booking fee).
Alinari National Museum of Photography
Dedicated to illuminating the history and development of photography, the Alinari National Museum of Photography (MNAF) is a museum which grew out of one of the most prestigious names in the history of photography: Alinari.
Founded in Florence in 1852, Fratelli Alinari is the oldest firm in the world working in the field of photography, image, and communication.
The birth of photography and the story of the firm go hand in hand, as attested to by the immense Alinari owned fund of 4,000,000 photographs, collected in the Alinari Archives.
In 1998, the firm constituted the “Fratelli Alinari Foundation for the History of Photography,” which created the MNAF in its current premises of Piazza Santa Maria Novella together with the City of Florence and the Foundation of the Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze.
Today there are over 2,750,000 b/w and color negatives on various supports in the collections, from plates to color photos, and over 900,000 vintage prints, including salted paper, albumen, bromide prints, and calotype negatives, daguerreotypes, and much more, many preserved in the collection of 6,000 original albums.
The museum is structured into two main parts - a space for temporary exhibits, and a permanent exhibition divided into seven sections that lead from its origins and the great photographers of the 19th and 20th centuries to contemporary Italian and international photography.
The seven sections of the itinerary:
- The origins of photography
- The golden age of photography
- The arrival of the avant-garde
- Transparencies and negatives
- Photography preserved: the photo album
- Step by step: Cameras from 1839 to the year 2000
- In and around photography
You’ll see material evidence of the work of the photographer and of the artistic evolution of photography in its over 160 years of history, as well as an important and comprehensive collection of cameras, advertising, paper documents, frames, and other objects connected to the photograph and its history.
In addition, you\'ll have the opportunity to visit the changing temporary exhibitions connected to the theme of historical and contemporary photography assembled by the MNAF museum itself or hosted in collaboration with some of the most important and prestigious international institutions.
Another vital sector of the museum is the library specialized in the history of photography. There are over 20,000 books dedicated to the sector, from the first descriptions of Daguerre’s new invention to the best known technical manuals of the 19th century, from European and international photographic journals, such as Stieglitz’s famous “Camera Work”, to the most recent catalogues of photographic exhibits by the institutions and museums who dedicate their activity to this field.