Museo della fotografia storica e contemporanea (Museum of historical and contemporary photography)

The first core of the Italian Foundation of Photography, born to preserve, promote and spread the photographic culture in Italy, was born in 1985, with the constitution of the Associazione Torino Fotografia, which realizes the first edition of the Biennale Internazionale di Fotografia.

In 1992 the Foundation officially constituted itself and it has as its partners: the Municipality of Turin, Banca Mediocredito (Gruppo Unicredito Italiano), SAI, and Torino Fotografia. In addition in 1994 there were the Municipality of Acquasparta (Terni - Umbria) and the Piedmont Region (since 1996).
The Archivio Parisio of Naples joined the Association and it is a new founder.

The museum of historical and contemporary photography's seat in via Avogadro was opened in September 1996 with the second edition of Fotodiffusione, which had as its host country The Netherlands.

In 2004 the museum was moved from its "historical" seat of via Avogadro to a new space in via La Salle, which hosts, besides the foundation's offices, the exhibition rooms, the library, the sections dedicated to the cataloguing and the filing, to the didactics, to exhibitions and to the arts.

With its activity, with a vast range and lasting several decades, the Foundation is now considered one of the most authoritative Italian interlocutors, but, not only in this country. There are many foreign institutions and authors which collaborated for it and for those the Foundation is a landmark for the promotion of the photographic culture.

Inside the museum there is also a bookshop, where it is possible to buy catalogues of the most important exhibitions and the volumes produced in these years by the Foundation, thanks to the collaboration of well-known Italian publishing houses.

The Italian Foundation of Photography, besides promoting and spreading the photographic culture in Italy, organises scholarships, stages and, especially, the Biennale Internazionale di Fotografia.