The Civic Museums of Bassano del Grappa, whose collections have recently been enriched with the acquisition of the Cesare Gerolimetto Fund, now make it accessible in the new section of the Photographic Archive of the Civic Museums. Thanks to the generous support of the Bassano del Grappa Rotary Club, which had already become a protagonist in 2022 by supporting the Municipality of Bassano in the organization of the exhibition Cesare Gerolimetto. Sentimental Journey (Palazzo Sturm, 13.05.2022 – 31.07.2022), it was in fact possible to start an ambitious project of computerized cataloging and putting online the incredible heritage of images donated to the city by the famous Bassano photographer.

An artist who likes to define himself as "first traveler, then photographer", Cesare Gerolimetto (Bassano del Grappa, 1939) approached the world of photography as a self-taught to soon become one of the main contemporary exponents. A curious and ironic observer, Gerolimetto recounts the poetry of everyday life with wonder and lightness, leading the observer to discover the world near and far. He is responsible for some of the most beautiful and evocative views of Bassano del Grappa and its Ponte Vecchio, but not only that.

With its over 650.000 photographs, the collection is made up of approximately 300.000 digital photographs and approximately 350.000 slides, negatives and medium formats which document the artist's numerous travels around Italy and the world, with particular interest in the places of his homeland, Veneto. The archive began to be built around 1976, the year in which the author made his longest and most challenging journey, a trip around the world in a truck which took him across the five continents for two years and seven months and which was awarded a Guinness World Record World Records. Starting in 1986, Gerolimetto began his career as a professional photographer, collaborating with important national and international magazines and participating in numerous exhibitions and publications.

Landscapes, travel snapshots, "street photography" and photographs of artistic and architectural heritage are the most recurring genres of the boundless heritage which today finds its home in the Civic Museums of Bassano del Grappa and becomes the object of an important work of inventorying, digitization and computerized cataloging which has aim of ensuring its conservation and promoting its accessibility.

The project is part of the broad program of activities of the Civic Museums of Bassano del Grappa which for some years have paid particular attention to the world of photography and its great masters. Alongside the important exhibitions dedicated to the great protagonists of the twentieth century (Robert Capa, Ruth Orkin, Dorothea Lange), the foundation of the digital photographic archive of the Civic Museums and the computerized cataloging of the Gerolimetto Fund in fact mark a fundamental stage in the history of the city's collections: a first step towards expanding the collections of this extraordinary art form, starting from the work of one of the most successful Bassano photographers.

Photography lovers will therefore be able to deepen their knowledge of Cesare Gerolimetto's work in the online catalog with a first selection of author photographs.

The acquisition and digitalization of the Gerolimetto Fund is made possible thanks to the support of the Rotary Club Bassano del Grappa.