Darkroom Prints: Soldiers on the Arno River, Florence, 1958

In 1958, Leonard Freed photographed three soldiers sitting above Florence’s Arno River on the ledge of the Ponte Vecchio. The very first documentation of the bridge was in the year 996, but it took its modern form around 1345. Despite being destroyed and rebuilt many times, the bridge stands as both the oldest in Florence and the only one in the city to survive World War II. This period of Italian history following the end of the Marshall Plan, known as the Economic Miracle, saw Italy transform from a poor, mostly rural nation into a global industrial power. Enormous changes in Italian society and culture from this time impacted the world over. Freed loved and photographed Italy for more than 50 years, with this photo first appearing in his book Leonard Freed: Photographs 1954-1990.