Publifoto Artwork valuations, appraisals and auction estimates

Publifoto Agency (1937 - ) was founded in Milan in 1937 by Vincenzo Carrese (1910 – 1981), who migrated to the north to become a journalist and who instead became, in 1927, the Italian representative of Wide World Photos, the photographic agency of the New York Times, and from 1929 of the English Keystone, of which he sold photographs exclusively to newspapers. 1934 was the turning point: he was called to direct the internal photographic service of the «Corriere della Sera», a role that soon led him to conceive his own company for the production and distribution of photographs with photographers employed by him: “ Foto Agenzia Keystone di Carrese Vincenzo" is the name of the first agency that he opened in November 1937, and which from 1 January 1939 became "Publifoto, photographs to publish". Read the full biography

Publifoto Agency (1937 - ) was founded in Milan in 1937 by Vincenzo Carrese (1910 – 1981), who migrated to the north to become a journalist and who instead became, in 1927, the Italian representative of Wide World Photos, the photographic agency of the New York Times, and from 1929 of the English Keystone, of which he sold photographs exclusively to newspapers. 1934 was the turning point: he was called to direct the internal photographic service of the «Corriere della Sera», a role that soon led him to conceive his own company for the production and distribution of photographs with photographers employed by him: “ Foto Agenzia Keystone di Carrese Vincenzo" is the name of the first agency that he opened in November 1937, and which from 1 January 1939 became "Publifoto, photographs to publish". The large group of photographers available night and day, among the first photographers there are Fedele Toscani, Tino Petrelli, Peppino Giovi and Carlo Ancillotti, allows Carrese to document any type of event and to promptly provide news and sports photographs to the publishing industry and current affairs. Within a short time, Carrese also opened a Publifoto branch in Rome, while only after the war did he invest in other locations (including Turin, Naples, Palermo, Genoa, Catania) to ensure the publishing industry had a widespread network of quality correspondents. However, the 1950s also saw the birth of the first competing Italian photojournalism agencies, and sensing this change in the market and anticipating the future crisis in publishing, Publifoto began to expand its production to include works commissioned by companies and color photographs, through an internal laboratory. The industrial, advertising and fashion photography sector was only later structured with the establishment of Publifoto Commerciale in the early 1960s. The Seventies instead marked a downward spiral for Publifoto, increasingly undermined by the competition of television information and by the times and costs imposed by the new market. Upon Carrese's death in 1981, Publifoto Notizie was managed by his children until it was sold to Fotocronache Olimpia in 1997.