Photographic Archive Tuscany - AFT's library of Prato

Presentation of the library

The AFT (Photographic Archive Tuscany), founded in 1980 and opened to the public since 1985, works for the preservation and the knowledge of the photographical heritage in image through the organization of events on National level (study days, training courses, exhibitions also of unpublished works), publications (manuals, books, conference proceedings) and recovery and conversation activities. The library is strictly specialized in photography and in some ways unique in Italy. It was formed as part of the institutional purposes of the Photographic Archive Tuscany, fulfilling the dual purpose tool for scholars and supporting essential activities of AFT.

It consists of publications of photography, and relevant to the photography with reference to the history, art, authors, fields of application up to criticism. There you can find titles, Italian and foreign, historical and contemporary monographs and anthologies of individual authors, from exhibition catalogues to specialized texts on the conservation and storage of photographic material.

The periodicals section includes the main Italian and foreign journals, several of them are acquired through exchange with the biannual magazine “AFT” published from the Archive.
It has a section of antiques, with publications of the second half of the 19th century and Italian and foreign periodicals.

The website provides information on the activities and services on the Archives, presents the various editions of the magazine “AFT” providing abstracts of articles published in it, marks photo Funds characterizing an analytical information and a small selection of images.

The AFT has created a project promoted by the Tuscany Region inherent in the census of photographic collections held in institutions and public institutions within the region. The database on Tuscan photography is already available to the public in the Archives.

Resources

• Owned books: 2000 (including books and pamphlets), of which about 500 dating to the second half of the 19th century/early 20th century;
• Current periodicals: 20;
• Ceased periodicals: 30.

Reading places

6

Service

• Information and counseling for specialized literature
• Interlibrary loan
• Editorial activities