After spending a madcap day in Florence 60 years ago, Ruth Orkin, an American photographer, jotted in her diary: "Shot Jinx in morn in color-at Arno & Piazza Signoria, then got idea for pic story. Satire on Am. girl alone in Europe." That's all it was supposed to be "It was a lark," says the woman at the center of Orkin's picture story. Nonetheless, one of the images they made together, American Girl in Italy, would become an enduring emblem of post-World War II femininity-and male chauvinism.
An Image of Innocence Abroad
David Schonauer, The Smithsonian, October 1, 2011
