Imagine an autumn evening in a small town in Southern Italy. In the council chamber or the Pro Loco office, about fifty people are sitting around a table. Each has brought something: a photograph, two photographs, sometimes an entire envelope. There are portraits of grandparents in work clothes taken in Belgian mines or Swiss construction sites. There's a large family photographed on a port dock before boarding. There's a group of men holding hats in front of a church in Chicago, on a Sunday forty years ago. The room is silent, because everyone is looking not only at their own photographs but also at those of others. And someone, for the first time, recognizes the surname on a label and realizes that the family that left for Brazil ninety years ago was related to their own. This scene isn't imaginary. It's already happened, in various forms, in dozens of Italian municipalities that have launched photographic memory collection campaigns. And it can happen anywhere. Because everywhere in Italy, there are stories of emigration waiting to be told.
Why the Municipality must be the promoter
Photographs of emigrants aren't stored in a single archive. They're scattered across hundreds of private drawers, in homes across the country, and in the homes of descendants abroad. Collecting them requires more than a one-off initiative: it requires an organized campaign, with a credible sponsor and extensive networks to deliver them to every family. The municipality is the natural promoterIt has the institutional authority to give the campaign an official status. It can use its own communication channels—its website, official communications, and social media—to launch the invitation. It can provide spaces for public events. But the Municipality alone isn't enough. The strength of a photo collection campaign depends on its ability to reach families, inspire trust, and collect not just photographs but the stories behind them. You need to rely on local associations, Pro Loco, cultural associations, volunteer groups, associations of former emigrants.
The Municipalities that have joined the Municipalities Project of the Italiani.it Foundation are encouraged to build this collaboration in a structured way, not as an impromptu delegation but as stable partnership, where each subject brings what he does best.
The specific role of each subject
The common It officially launches the campaign, communicates through its own channels, coordinates the stakeholders, and provides space. If necessary, it can provide a small grant for out-of-pocket expenses (digitalization, communication materials).
The Pro Loco They are often the individuals with the strongest local roots. They know the families, they know who keeps old photographs, and they have the credibility to knock on doors. They can organize fundraising evenings, public events, and meetings in the smallest hamlets.
Cultural associations They bring specific skills: some have already completed work on local history, have relationships with archives and libraries, and know how to collect and catalog historical materials. They can take on the more technical aspects of the work.
Associations of former emigrants or their descendants, where they exist, are valuable for a particular reason: they have direct knowledge of communities abroad and can activate channels to collect photographs even from descendants living outside Italy—often those who preserve the most precious materials precisely because they have guarded them as family heirlooms.
Parish priests and parish communities They have always played a role in gathering memories in Italian communities. Bulletins, archives, period photographs related to religious holidays: the parish world is an often unexplored treasure trove of historical materials.
The campaign in practice: five steps
1. The decision and the institutional launch
The Municipality joins the Municipalities Project and, as part of the memorandum of understanding with the Italiani.it Foundation, decides to launch a photography campaign. It convenes local associations, presents the project, and defines their roles. It launches the campaign with an official announcement: Our municipality is seeking photographs of emigrants. Help us build a virtual museum of our memory.
2. Capillary sensitization
The associations are active on their own channels: social media, newsletters, word of mouth. They organize public presentations of the project, explaining what the Virtual Museum of Emigrants at museo.italiani.it is, what happens to the donated photographs, how they are preserved and made accessible. Transparency on this point is essential: families must know that their photographs are not "taken" but valued and returned —in digital form, in a space that makes them visible to the world.
3. Collection and digitization
One or more collection events are organized—evenings where families bring their photographs, which are digitized on-site with portable scanners or smartphones. Volunteers record information: names, dates, migration destinations, family histories. Each photograph becomes a document with a story.
4. Insertion into the Virtual Museum
The collected materials are sent to the Italiani.it Foundation, which inserts them into the Virtual Museum of Emigrants On museo.italiani.it, in the section dedicated to the Municipality. Each artifact is accompanied by the information collected and made accessible worldwide.
5. Giving back to the community
The campaign doesn't end with the collection. It ends with the restitution: a public evening where the City and the associations showcase the results of their work—the photographs in the museum, the stories collected, the names rediscovered. It's a powerful moment, capable of generating authentic emotions and strengthening a sense of community.
What happens next: the international dimension
Every photograph uploaded to the Virtual Museum at museo.italiani.it isn't just a local document. It enters a global archive, accessible to millions of Italians around the world and their descendants. It is indexed by surname, town of origin, and historical period. A descendant of an emigrant living in Melbourne or Buenos Aires looking for their great-grandparent's surname can find, in the Virtual Museum, a family photograph taken in their hometown before they left. They can see what the square, the church, and the house looked like. They can discover the name of a relative who remained in Italy. This connection between the local collection campaign and the global dimension of the diaspora is the heart of the Comuni Project. The photographs collected thanks to the work of a Pro Loco volunteer become the point of contact between a town of two thousand inhabitants and millions of people around the world who still carry that town in their surname.
A message for associations
If you're a manager of a Pro Loco, a cultural association, or a volunteer group in a municipality that has joined the Progetto Comuni—or in a municipality that's considering doing so—this project directly affects you. The work you already do, preserving local memory, organizing events, and keeping alive the connection to local traditions, finds a broader dimension and a more powerful tool in the Progetto Comuni. The photographs you help collect won't end up in a dusty archive. They'll enter a digital museum that will make them visible to the entire world. It's a rare opportunity: doing something small—knocking on a few doors, organizing an evening, holding a scanner—has a much bigger impact than you might think.
For information on how to start a photography campaign in your municipality, contact the Italiani.it Foundation: ppgad@pucrs.br — fondazione.italiani.it
