Farabola Historical Archive

“I believe I have created one of the richest and best-organised archives in Italy”

- TULLIO FARABOLA

Tullio Farabola was one of the first and best-known Italian photojournalists. He founded his photo agency after the Second World War, but he did not limit himself to photographing current events: alongside his daily work, he built an archive of images, as broad and comprehensive as possible in its subjects and continually updated, as photojournalism demands. In the post-war years Farabola then completed his material by acquiring several photographic collections from the late nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century.

Who was Tullio Farabola

Tullio Farabola was one of the first and best-known Italian photojournalists of the post-war period. Born in Milan on 8 October 1920, he followed in his father’s footsteps: his father, Alessandro, known as Giuseppe, had started working as a photographer in 1896, opening his own studio at corso Ticinese 87. He devoted himself to portraits, ceremonies, group photos and sports photography.

After earning his diploma in accountancy, Tullio began working with his father. But the war came and, after a period of military service, he was transferred to Rome, to the Istituto Luce, where he attended a course in wartime film technique. Above all, he met Adolfo Porry Pastorel, founder of the agency VEDO, who became his mentor in art and in life.

Tullio Farabola at the time when he worked as a war cameraman with the General Staff Propaganda Company attached to the Istituto Luce, Rome, 1942. (Copyright Farabola)

In 1943, during an Allied bombing raid, the Farabola photographic studio was destroyed, and with it the negatives and most of the equipment. Tullio Farabola documented the historical events of 1943-45, carrying out photo assignments for both the Wehrmacht and the Partisan forces, covering combat actions and documenting the effects of the bombing in Milan. He photographed the celebrations after the fall of Fascism on 25 July 1943, the German occupation, Mussolini’s speech from a balcony of the Muti headquarters in via Rovello in 1944, the Allied bombing of Milan and its victims (the dramatic photo of the children killed at the school in Gorla during an Allied raid in 1944 is famous), the Liberation with the Germans abandoning the city, the procession of the leaders of the Corpo volontari della libertà and of the partisans marching through the streets of the city centre on 25 April 1945, and some of the events that immediately followed (the display of the bodies in piazzale Loreto, the execution of Buffarini Guidi).

Partisans parading on Liberation Day, Milan, 25 April 1945. (Copyright Farabola)

People celebrating in the streets of Milan, 25 April 1945. (Copyright Farabola)

Partisans lead the Fascist Carlo Barzaghi, known as “The Executioner of the Verziere”, to the market in via Cadore, where he will be shot, Milan, 28 April 1945. (Copyright Farabola)

When the war was over he went back to working with his father, but he devoted himself to photojournalistic reportage rather than classic studio photography, creating the press photo agency “Farabola”, based at C.so Ticinese 60.

On 31 August 1946 he married Paolina Siboni, with whom he had a son, Mario. Meanwhile his agency became one of the most important in Italy, so much so that in the 1950s and 1960s, for a figure from the world of entertainment, art or sport, being photographed by Farabola was a confirmation of success.

Tullio Farabola died in Milan on 11 December 1983.

The Farabola agency and its success

The Farabola agency was founded in 1945 in Milan, at Corso di Porta Ticinese 60. In the first post-war years it recorded the hardships of a city exhausted by bombing and hunger, the poverty, the black market, the Cucine Economiche soup kitchens, the dormitories, the boys locked up in the Beccaria juvenile prison, the revolt in San Vittore Prison led by Ezio Barbieri, the round-ups of prostitutes, the illegal gambling dens, the attempt on Togliatti’s life and then, at last, the reconstruction of the city, from La Scala to the Galleria, the citizens’ return to life, Toscanini’s return, the first open-air dances, people bathing in the Navigli canals, the first signs of the economic boom, entertainment, sport and fashion. Within a short time the photo agency became one of the best known in the country and worked with the leading Italian daily newspapers and weekly magazines.

The black market in Milan after the war. In the first photo, a woman buys white bread in via Conca del Naviglio. In the second, tobacco is being sold. (Copyright Farabola)

Milan, April 1946. Revolt in San Vittore Prison. The inmates after the prison revolt led by Ezio Barbieri, which began on Easter Day and was quelled after three days. (Copyright Farabola)

Pallante’s attempt on the life of Palmiro Togliatti. The leader of the PCI, Palmiro Togliatti, a few moments after the attack in which he was wounded, is taken to a clinic by ambulance, Rome, 14 July 1948. (Copyright Farabola)

The considerable demand for images from publishers after the end of the War was met by the creation of a dense network of photo agencies in the main Italian cities. Milan was home to the three leading Italian agencies: Publifoto (of Vincenzo Carrese), Farabola, Rotofoto (of Fedele Toscani) and Giancolombo of Gian Battista Colombo.

Tullio Farabola soon gave priority to developing the photo agency over his own work as a photojournalist, carrying out intensive photographic work in the studio, producing black-and-white portraits of figures from the world of culture and entertainment, and photos for the covers of the most popular weekly magazines of the time (Oggi, Gente, Radiocorriere TV) and of vinyl records.

Tullio Farabola in his studio in Corso di Porta Ticinese with Claudio Villa (first photo) and Claudia Cardinale. (Copyright Farabola)

For his black-and-white portraits Farabola drew inspiration from Yousuf Karsh, the Canadian photographer, while the idea of colour covers for the big popular weekly magazines and for vinyl records came from the photos taken by the photographer Slim Aarons and by other great American advertising photographers, who produced large-format transparencies (18 x 24), something unusual in Italy. These photos gave rise to the idea of Emilio Radius (editor of Oggi from 1956 to 1962) to commission black-and-white portraits of figures from the world of art and entertainment (Salvatore Quasimodo, Eugenio Montale, Riccardo Bacchelli, Indro Montanelli, Giorgio De Chirico, Juliette Gréco), and to the idea of Vittorio Buttafava, editor of Novella 2000 in 1957, to produce the covers of the weekly magazines and the series of staged popular songs to illustrate the covers of vinyl records. Numerous covers were produced for the records of Renato Carosone, the Quartetto Cetra, Mina, Johnny Dorelli, Fred Buscaglione and Adriano Celentano.

Sandra Mondaini, Adriano Celentano, Ornella Vanoni and Walter Chiari pose in the Farabola studio. (Copyright Farabola)

The photojournalism agency also relied on numerous contributors: Franco Gremignani, Lucio Berzioli, Sergio Del Grande, Sergio Bersani, Adalberto Guarnerio, Eros Biavati, Settimio Garritano, Angelo Cozzi, Pietro Pascuttini.

The Historical Archive

Alongside the agency’s activity, the Historical Archive was taking shape. Initially, the need was to put in order the photos that remained at the agency because they had not been sold. On the twentieth anniversary of the outbreak of the Second World War, in 1960, the press began to take an interest in images of Fascism and the war. The archive was thus expanded with acquisitions of material from other archives.

The Lazio club offers the Fascist Federal Secretary of Rome all its trophies, displayed in the centre of the pitch, after the economic sanctions imposed by the League of Nations because of the Italo-Ethiopian war, Rome, 1 December 1935. The placard displayed by the white-and-sky-blue players before the match Lazio - Genoa (1-1). (Vedo Archive, Copyright Farabola).

Passengers and emigrants waiting to leave on board a steamship bound for Brazil, Genoa, 1932. (Agosto Archive, Copyright Farabola)

The first major acquisition was the archive of Adolfo Porry Pastorel’s Agenzia VEDO, in 1950. This was followed by the acquisition of the archives of Mario Agosto, photographer for the Società Italia di Navigazione, of the portrait photographers Arturo Ermini and Attilio Badodi, and of the de Felice family, photographers accredited to the Holy See from 1920 to 1970. In 1960 photos of the Second World War were acquired from foreign agencies and used for photo features published by the leading Italian weekly magazines. The initiative was very successful and prompted further enrichment of the historical archive. Images of the two World Wars were then purchased from the archive of the Imperial War Museum in London, including RAF aerial shots of the bombed cities (this was the first photographic material of the Second World War to be imported into Italy). In East Berlin, on the other hand, an exchange was arranged between Italian photos of Fascism and German photos of Nazism. In this way the archive acquired the photos of Hitler taken by Heinrich Hoffmann, photos of Manfred von Richthofen (the “Red Baron”) and of Göring, the history of inflation in the Weimar Republic and others of great historical interest. The creation, development and management of the historical archive were largely overseen by Alberto Crivelli, who worked with the agency from 1948 and was its director from the death of Tullio Farabola until 1990.

Today the archive is managed by the company AF – Archivi Farabola Srl. For any information, simply write to: info@farabola.com or fill in the contact form below.