Giuseppe Chiavaroli is a PhD student in Humanities, Technology, and Society at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. He is involved in metadata management and analysis of the photographic collections of the European Photography Festival of Reggio Emilia in collaboration with DHMORE, the Interdepartmental Research Center on Digital Humanities, as well as the photographic collections of the Archives of the Chamber of Labor of Reggio Emilia and the Historical Institute of the Resistance and Contemporary History, where he focuses on amateur photography as a historical document. After his Bachelor’s Degree at the University of Macerata in partnership with The Austrian Film Museum in Vienna, he graduated at the University of Pavia with a thesis on the relations between photographic archiving and industrial archaeology. He has published: Industria e fotografia. Il caso della Bottega Fotografica Chiolini di Pavia (Univers, Pavia 2022) and, with Claudia Trentani, Luigi Trentani. Fotografo. Tecnica e Creazione per la Pavia del Novecento (Cisalpino – Istituto Editoriale Universitario, Milano 2023). His main research interests concern the relationship between photographic images and collective memory, industrial archaeology intended as corporate heritage and the archival organization of the national industrial heritage starting from the photographic traces of the workshops of photographers active in the territory under consideration.
Project statement:
The Construction of the Factory: Memories of Work and Struggle of Female Textile Workers in Reggio Emilia. A Narrative Perspective for Photography at the Museums of Industry and Labour History.
Industrial photography, beyond being a corporate communication tool, is a historical lens through which the relationship between industry, society, and identity can be examined. In Italy, from the 1930s onwards, photography entered factories to document architectures, machinery, and workers – often as part of a company’s propaganda. Yet, its power lies in capturing a dialogue: between industrial needs and the visual culture of the photographer. This project focuses on a rare, powerful counter-narrative: clandestine photographs taken by female textile workers in Reggio Emilia during the late 1950s and early 1960s, preserved in the Archive of the Chamber of Labour. These images break away from the celebratory tone of official industrial photography. Instead, they reveal cramped spaces, unsafe machinery, and the silent endurance of women who, in 1961, achieved wage parity – an unprecedented milestone in Italy. Here, photography becomes a weapon of testimony, shaping a “new female subjectivity” in the history of labour, civil rights, and industrial heritage. Unlike the well-documented history of the Officine Meccaniche Reggiane – symbol of male industrial work – these images tell the lesser-known story of women’s industrial labour, social conflict, and collective resistance. By placing these photographs within the broader European Route of Industrial Heritage (ERIH) framework, the project proposes a replicable narrative model: starting from local and family photographic archives, industrial museums can highlight the gendered dimensions of industrial history. The aim is to restore visibility to women’s contribution to European industrialization – still underexplored, still politically relevant – while expanding the role of industrial photography from corporate archive to social memory. Through this, museum space becomes not only a place of conservation but also of critical engagement, allowing visitors to imagine future trajectories of work, gender, and industrial heritage.
Website: https://www.phdhumantechsociety.unimore.it/en/homepageenglish/
