The frequent mobility of the knife grinders, and, more generally, of Resian seasonal or temporary workers, definitely influenced Resian society. These workers were basically the only link between Resia and the outside world. These emigrants, on their frequent trips, were constantly coming in contact with new realities, new discoveries, new tools, and new trends.

They carried, possibly unknowingly, the stream of information between the valley and the rest of the world, and contributed to bringing in “novelty” every time they came back. As Antonio Longhino wrote in his essay on Resia Valley’s knife grinders: “ … the knife grinders had (a role) also in the field of information. They were indeed the carriers of news from the outside world …”. (A: LONGHINO; 1992).

Therefore they weren’t only the carriers of technical and architectural innovations or big scientific discoveries, but especially of new trends and more frivolous fads.

Resian emigrants, for example, were certainly the first to come in contact with the world of photography, which at the time was inaccessible to the majority of the people. The presence of many portraits of Resians abroad seems to confirm this theory, which is supported also by various local informers.

The knife grinders/brüsarji and the merchants/kramarji were the first to get the possibility to learn about the new photographic technique. This, of course, was rendered possible by their continuous travels and their financial resources, which were much greater than those of the Resians who had stayed in the valley.

A lot of them also commissioned portaits of their wives, causing who knows what great amazement at those first images  . (The term itself,  “litratavi – litrate”, used in the Resian dialect to indicate pictures, comes from the Friulian “ritrat/portrait”.

According to Professor Han Steenwjik, the specificity of the Resian term is that it indicates “pictures in general”, while the Friulian term only indicates “pictures of people”, namely, portraits.)

In these pictures we can also see the evolution of fashion, as more modern clothes took the place of the traditional clothes that were still in use until the end of the 19th century  . Even the dialect evolved and changed, including loan words first from the German language, then from Friulian, and, more aggressively, also from the Italian language.