Domenico Scrigna poses on the day of his enlistment as an apprentice firefighter. A firm, proud gaze, unaware that his true tool of rescue and witness would become, just a few years later, his inseparable camera.
Domenico Scrigna in 1945: a gaze marked by war and the struggle for freedom. The fascist symbols on his collar hide his clandestine commitment to the Resistance, marking the transition from the youthful trust of the first photo to the awareness of a man who lived through History.
Domenico Scrigna (with the hat) poses with Marshals Rubino, Franchino, Zucchino, and Alice for "Gazzetta del Popolo". This is his final official photo in uniform before retirement. A collective tribute to a man who transformed emergency rescue into an unprecedented work of historical documentation.
Away from wartime emergencies, Scrigna's lens captures the intimate serenity of a Torinese family in the 1940s. The extraordinary sharpness of the embroidery and wallpaper is the result of the author's technical skill, choosing to print the light onto a glass plate: a fragile yet eternal medium, safeguarding the composed dignity of a rare moment of peaceful joy.
With the storm of war now past, Domenico Scrigna's lens turns to the growth of his daughter, Maddalena. In this shot, the young woman surrounds a lively group of children with a protective gaze. It is a portrait of an era: the photo celebrates the spontaneous community that defined childhood during the Reconstruction, turning a city balcony into a symbol of a restarting Italy.
The legendary Marshal Luigi Zucchino poses next to an OM Leoncino. Soul of the Command Workshops, he led generations of firefighter-craftsmen capable of mechanical miracles, anticipating industrial innovations. Scrigna's shot celebrates the solidarity and sense of duty of a Corps that rebuilt the future.
From inside a service car, Scrigna takes a test shot to check the film, unintentionally turning the window into a viewfinder for the devastation. The dark cockpit offers an illusion of protection from the shattered world, while the number 110 appears scratched onto the negative: a raw sign of how precious every centimeter of film was. But look closely inside the “zero”: a couple on a bicycle appears among the rubble. In that tiny detail, captured by chance, lies all the strength of life.
A souvenir photo of Fire Chief Luigi Bigi's children in front of the historic pedestrian entrance of the Central Fire Station. In the background, the walls become political chronicles: among the remnants of the 1948 elections, Garibaldi of the Popular Front and the torn posters of the Italian Social Movement coexist. A striking contrast that bears witness to the post-war ideological tension in a place where a strong partisan brigade had been active.
In Grazzano Badoglio, shortly before the Liberation of Turin, Domenico Scrigna dedicates the last shot of the roll to a local family. In their worn but clean clothes, the dignity of a rural Italy that resisted the hardships of war shines through. A moment of serene anticipation preceding the return to normalcy and the end of the conflict.
A young Filippone captured in a moment of pause. Already a top athlete for the Fire Brigade Sports Group, he would later transpose the discipline of sport into civic commitment. A charismatic figure of the CGIL, he dedicated his life to protecting his colleagues, becoming one of the founding fathers of the union in the post-war period.
Three young firefighters pose with bold freshness in front of a Fiat 1100 Radio, a symbol of reconstruction. On the left stands the young Giulio Filippone, future trade unionist and keeper of the Corps' memory. The light leaks on the right reveal the nature of the shot: it is the first frame of the roll just inserted into Scrigna’s Leica, an "error" that seals the authenticity of an era beginning anew.