Fotografia e scienza in Italia dal 1839 al 1939: il progetto “L’occhio della scienza”

1839 symbolically marks the birth of photography and the beginning of a process that would soon make photography a necessary and unavoidable tool and support for scientific research and practice. Originated from science, photography immediately showed scientists the contribution that it could bring, i.e. the possibility of fixing images, allowing to study objects even in their absence and revealing details invisible to the naked eye. The photographic plate thus became the scientist’s retina and the camera was an essential instrument in observatories, laboratories, trips, hospitals. The project The Eye of Science (L’occhio della scienza), born from the collaboration of the Museo della Grafica of the University of Pisa with the Museo Galileo of Florence, had the aim of delving into and narrating the birth of scientific photography in Italy, retracing its first century, through some meaningful experiences and personalities. The project yielded two exhibitions, A Century of Scientific Photography in Italy, 1839-1939 (Un secolo di fotografia scientifica in Italia, 1839-1939) and Giorgio Roster and Odoardo Beccari, Explorers of Places and Images (Giorgio Roster e Odoardo Beccari, esploratori di luoghi e immagini), that illustrate the first applications of photography to the various scientific sectors in Italy, reflecting on its different functions, as well as on potential and limits. Located in the Museum of Graphics of Pisa and in the Stibbert Museum of Florence, the two exhibitions deal with the matter with two different approaches: the first – divided into four sections, Heaven, Earth, Living, Human – focuses on the different scientific disciplines and on the contribution provided by the photographic techniques to them; the second concentrates on two emblematic characters, Odoardo Beccari and Giorgio Roster, illustrating their activity, starting from the birth of the Italian Photographic Society. In parallel with the two “physical” exhibitions, a virtual one was realized, following the lines of the two exhibitions and deepening the topics by means of the collections of the partnering institutions.