“There was a time when the children of Florence’s neighborhoods would come and go from the workshops as if they were simply an extension of the street.”
That’s the first line of Botteghe, a photography project by Guido Cozzi accompanied by texts by Livia Frescobaldi. There are no longer children wandering the streets, in and out of workshops. And many of the artisan workshops in Forence have disappeared. We’re not talking about leather artisans making purses for tourists, but foundries, ceramicists, intarsia artisans.
Only a few dozen artisans remain. What happened to them? What evidence do we have of their work? Cozzi has spoken to them, a keen observer and conversationalist, and has recorded them in a specific photographic style – frontally captured, empty workshops. Empty so that you don’t know if the artisan has just stepped out of the frame, or is gone forever.
I asked Guido Cozzi what we’re losing with the disappearance of the artisans, why they’re closing, and what we can do to save them… if they should be saved. His answer is so eloquent, I have decided to translate it with minimal intervention and publish it here alongside a selection of his equally eloquent photos.
Throughout history, Florence has always been a city of artisans. While this was once true of many places, the bond between commerce and craftsmanship endured longer here than elsewhere. Until the 1960s, Florence was still full of artisans working in their shops and on the pavement out front. That was the social fabric upon which city life was built.
There is nothing nostalgic about recalling those times with a touch of melancholy. We are not reflecting on the handmade object itself, but on a society that placed human relationships at its center. In that sense, we lost that world long ago. The remaining artisans are important, but I do not believe they alone can restore a balanced way of living in Florence.
You ask why the botteghe are closing. Workshops close for many reasons: lifestyles have changed, the world is globalized, and people prefer to spend little on furnishing homes that are smaller and less lived-in than they used to be. These are all valid and understandable reasons.
However, I would place this within a broader framework: the disappearance of a specific worldview. Artisan labor is 100% pure work. It is the transformation of raw materials into something useful through labor. Today, the world is dominated by finance… not the finance that serves the economy, but the finance that serves itself, where money is made from money. This system perceives labor not as a value, but as a cost to be cut. In a world where the dominant thought views labor as a negative, the artisan has no chance of survival.
This is why I say they should not be saved at all costs through subsidies or rent controls. Doing so creates a bubble of privileged individuals who no longer have a place in the market. It may be a cynical view, but I believe the necessary intervention is different: the creation of a myth.
In the 1990s, I went to Rochefort, France, as a reporter to follow the reconstruction of the Hermione, the sailing vessel La Fayette used in 1782 to support the American Revolution. Why did the French decide to manually rebuild an 18th-century frigate using period techniques? The reason was simple: the port of Rochefort was in crisis. They needed to relaunch the image of the port and its workforce. By reconstructing the Hermione, they proved they could manage complex problems. Alongside the ship, they created a myth for the builders, revitalizing the port and its related industries.
I do not know what our Hermione could be. I know we have exceptional artisans capable of great things, but the chain is broken. They lack the opportunity to prove they are still part of the myth, to show they are the same hands that built Brunelleschi’s Dome.
Finally, there is one field currently providing Florence with an identity: restoration. We have world-class excellence in this sector. Restoration culture is a science at the Opificio delle Pietre Dure and a school at the Istituto Spinelli; it is spread throughout the city. Restoration requires a profound knowledge of materials, history, and construction techniques. It is high-level craftsmanship, and it deserves recognition, not least because it is a subject that truly engages young people.
“In a world where the dominant thought views labor as a negative, the artisan has no chance of survival.”
Buy the book
Cozzi writes, in his crowdfunding for this book that raised over €6000, “I am convinced that books are the greatest narrators of human stories. Books have been with us for many years and have contributed to the improvement of humanity.”
For this reason you may want to own a physical copy of Guido Cozzi’s Botteghe, which includes text in English and Italian.
It is published by SIME BOOKS and available from the publisher’s website and in most Florentine bookshops.
Here is the book on Amazon.it (temporarily out of stock)
