From the preface by Jennifer Coffani, Head of the Photographic Archive: “The giants of the sea. Journey in the 1900s: Italy of ocean liners is the second volume of the series of the Museo della Fotografia Sestini and it’s dedicated to the history of the great passenger ships that sailed the oceans in the last century. Indeed, among collections kept by the Sestini Photographic Archive, there is that of the Lorandi Travel Agency, one of the first agencies founded in Italy and the first located in Bergamo.

This collection, offered in 2012 to the Museum by Adriana Lorandi (last manager of the family business), represents a valuable testimony of the activity run by the historical Travel Agency, at first in support of migrants in search of fortune abroad and then of wealthy tourists travelling for pleasure or on business. The photographic section of the collection, of about 1250 prints, is mostly made up of advertising material received from the shipping companies the Lorandi Agency represented.

The images included in the book thus tell us about a double endeavour: on the one hand that of Lorandi, almost a century long, and on the other that of great ocean liners, floating towns, not surprisingly often referred to with the suggestive name giants of the sea.”

Languages: English and Italian

Edition: 2020