Vintage Alinari Photographs - Art & Architecture of Europe and America

Fratelli Alinari Fotografi Editori

Photospace Gallery
37 Courtenay Place, Te Aro, Wellington

17 - 29 September 2020

What is in these boxes? 1500+ mostly black & white silver gelatin prints of photos by Alanari, Italy, of various sizes, mounted on card and stored in 45 linen-covered plywood boxes. A selection - one or two from each box - will be exhibited in the gallery.

Back story: these boxes of photos were recovered from a skip, and I purchased them from their rescuer in about 2005 and have stored them at home since then. Recently, all the prints have all been photographed. I have yet to process the RAW camera files.

The prints are in overall very good condition. The card they are mounts on seems to be archivally stable - it has not yet (after nearly a century) deteriorated or affected the prints. The boxes, particularly the larger ones, have suffered a bit due to storage. Some of the prints have 'silvered', meaning the silver metal in the print has risen to the surface and is visible as a sheen when viewed at an angle, and this is noticeable around the edges of a number of the prints. But for their age they are great. And as you will see, they are very beautiful.

At this stage, I'm optimistic about finding a buyer for the entire set of photographs, as I don't wish them to be broken up. If this does not occur within a certain time, I'll consider selling the photographs individually. But it would be great to see them retained and valued as a set. The photographic record of each print would be included.
James Gilberd, Photospace Gallery.