But it was the unknown figures of the Italian diaspora he has always been drawn to photograph. The ones in steelworks, on the fishing docks and factory floors, in grocery shops or gardens, or in their homes filled with Murano glass – as well as accoutrements of their new homeland (pets like cockatoos).

It is these ordinary, often invisible Italians, he pays tribute to in a book called Visual Legacy: Italian Australian Elders. It was launched in May as part of the 50th anniversary celebrations of Co.As.It., the voluntary agency that provides services for the Italian community. It is accompanied by an exhibition of 50 of the photos in the book, which will also tour regional areas of NSW.

The book and exhibition are made up of Italian characters such as Mari Busato, who when Totaro took her photo still spoke with a Vicenzan accent (as did her 32-year-old sulphur-crested cockatoo, who kept the neighbours entertained with his loud Vicenzan swear words). Balmain florist Joe Mustica, whose bandanas and bracelets, are as colourful as his Darling Street flower stall. Tenth-generation fisherman Salvatore Bagnato whose family still runs the "Bagnato'' dock at Sydney Fish Markets. And Giovanni De Bellis, who would have graduated as a ragioniere, literally "a man of reason", which, he muses, sounded so much more interesting than accountant – or what he became in Australia, a financial controller for the Transfield group.

Totaro shows intimate portraits of people, who were the early pioneers of "multiculturalism". When former Premier Neville Wran invited him in 1977 to examine case studies of all migrants including those in schools, hospitals, courts of law and workplaces, he was asked to recommend how to put principles of multiculturalism into practice. The result was a 600-page report known as Participation, which was tabled in NSW Parliament in 1978. The original commissioners, also became known as the godparents of multiculturalism in Australia.

"I belong to that generation of migrants who arrived after World War II, who integrated quickly into the Australian community. We all had similar stories but we are getting old and we are disappearing," said Totaro.

"I felt for the book and exhibition I had to put together a group of ordinary people who had had an extraordinary life because of the experience of transplantation from one country to another.

"I avoided the famous and the rich, they don't need this sort of celebration. I wanted to capture the image of the ordinary Italian-Australian experience ... We are not any more new Australians, we are Australians, who showed enormous self-reliance and resilience from the very start of our arrival in this country," he said.

Lorenzo Fazzini, the president of Co.As.It., which published the book, said: "You won't find any tall poppies in this book. These are all very humble people, but they are the images of the people who have 'created' the Italian-Australian community. Although some of these people are no longer with us, we continue to learn from them, respect them and thank them for paving the way."