Family life moments between the 1920s and the 1960s

curated by Archivio Storico LUCE

The 13 photographs on display recount some family life’s moments in a time span ranging from the early 1920s to the late 1960s, a period of great social, political and cultural transformations in Italy. These images are windows that introduce us within the intimacy of family life, showing the emotions, bonds, joys and dramas of private life, which becomes a collective narration of our history. The exhibition doesn’t follow a chronological line; the photographs are organized in small groups, thematic or held together by a thin visual thread. This approach carries out social, cultural and historical contrasts, assonances and differences. 

There’s the family posing on the house’s threshold in a small village in the Roman province, there are families at the table, one in the poor suburb of Tor Marancia (Rome), the other, middle-class, gathered for the prayer before the meal. And then the tragic departures of those who go to the battlefront or those who must leave their home due to the flood, or must emigrate; and the joyful departures, waiting to board for the holidays. And again, the small gestures of affection, the kiss of a mother or the caress of a father on the first day of school. They are all snapshots of family life, carving the plot of a private story that becomes a shared memory. 

The research that led to the selection was carried out within the vast LUCE Photographic Archive, which preserves around 5 million photographs. The photographic archive is filled by photos produced directly by LUCE from 1927 to 1962 to which  images of newly acquired funds are added, which extend the temporal extremes from the early twentieth century to the early 2000s. Since 2013, photographs of the LUCE historical collection have become part of the Memory of the World - UNESCO register, the project aimed at enhancing the most important archival and library collections on the planet.