Before the rural exodus of the 1950s in Italy, a symbolic and reverse exodus took place. The symbolic capital of modern culture penetrated into the farming world. Society has particular mechanisms in place to relieve pressures, thereby also announcing and preparing for social changes. This paper analyses one of these mechanisms, namely family photography between the late 19th century and the early 20th century. Through some singular portraits, we see the ‘dispatcher’ role that photography played in the interstices of society between psychological, social, and material realities: a junction of emotions, a mediator between the rural and urban worlds, a rite of passage that channels drives, and a yardstick of what society considers to be correct or not.