[2] In 1943 he came back to Milan; during an allied bombing in August 1943, the Farabola photographic studio, along with the negatives and equipment was destroyed.

[3] He documented historical facts from 1943 to 1945: the German occupation, the last speech of Mussolini, the effects and victims of the allied bombing (the photograph of the children who died in the school of Gorla[3] in 1944 became famous), the liberation with the Germans who left the city and the leaders of the Committee of National Liberation who paraded with the partisans through the streets of Milan on 25 April 1945, the exposure of corpses of Mussolini, Clara Petacci and the fascist hierarchs arrested in Dongo in Piazzale Loreto, the shooting of Buffarini Guidi, minister of the interior during the "Repubblica Sociale Italiana".

He photographed the difficulties of the city exhausted by bombing and hunger, the black stock market, the dormitories, the Cucine Economiche [Wikidata], the boys imprisoned in the Beccaria juvenile prison, the revolt in the San Vittore prison led by Ezio Barbieri, the raids of prostitutes, the clandestine gambling dens, the attack on Togliatti, then finally the reconstruction of the city, from the Scala to the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, the return to the life of the citizens, the return of Toscanini, the first outdoor dances, the first signs of the economic boom, entertainment, sport, fashion[5] In those years in Italy photojournalism grew considerably due to the freedom of information regained after 20 years of dictatorship.

Publishing required an ever-increasing number of photographs relating to news, entertainment, art and politics: thus a dense network of photo agencies arose.

In 1946, following a crime story, the murder by Rina Fort [Wikidata] of her lover's wife and children, the photo of the murderess sleeping on a sofa in the police station was published in the main newspapers and weeklies, causing a sensation and giving Farabola notoriety.

He was busy in the studio, creating covers for the most popular weeklies of the time (Oggi, Gente, Radiocorriere TV), album covers (Renato Carosone, Fred Buscaglione) and black and white portraits of characters from the world of culture and entertainment (Salvatore Quasimodo, Eugenio Montale, Riccardo Bacchelli, Indro Montanelli, Giorgio De Chirico, Juliette Gréco).

Lucio Berzioli was a property finder and had a flair for finding furniture, clothing and other objects that were used to set the images.

Later the archives of Mario Agosto, photographer of the "Italia" Navigation Company (transatlantic liners Conte Grande, Rex, Andrea Doria, Michelangelo and Raffaello), of the portraitists Arturo Ermini and Attilio Badodi, of Giuseppe Felici, (photographer accredited to the Holy See from 1920 to 1970) were acquired.

In 1960, photographs of World War II were acquired from foreign agencies and published in the main Italian weeklies.

The creation, development and management of the historical archive was largely handled by Alberto Crivelli, collaborator with the agency since 1948 and its director from the death of Tullio Farabola until 1990.