L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2022 www.italoamericano.org 22 L'Italo-Americano molding but overall they were in good conditions." He points out. "Thanks to s o m e o f m y f r i e n d s a n d contacts in Florence, and especially with the help of Paolo De Rocco, I was able to get a first meeting and present some of the photos t o C a r l o F r a n c i n i , w h o heads the UNESCO office for the City of Florence. Mr. Francini then brought the images to the attention o f t h e c i t y a r c h i v e a n d eventually we all met while I w a s i n T u s c a n y o n a t e a c h i n g t r i p i n e a r l y 2013." The city archive at that meeting was blown away by Joe's photos and enthu- s i a s t i c a l l y a c c e p t e d h i s o f f e r o f d o n a t i n g t h e scanned slides (almost 90 and among the very few color photos of the 1966 Florence flood) to the city of Florence, and started the preparations for the first public showing. "It was a total accident, I a m n o t a h e r o , a n y b o d y w o u l d h a v e t a k e n t h o s e photos. I was lucky that I have a decent eye. These photos are pure guesswork, I had no light meter, noth- ing was automatic, it was an old camera. " B u t w h e n t h e c i t y archive saw the photos, in particular, the one of Arno and the one with the cars flooding and slamming, the h e a d o f t h e a r c h i v e grabbed me and told me: 'You are an angel! This is a piece of history of our city!' It made me laugh because I t h o u g h t o f m y w i f e t h a t was there with me and that eventually passed away; she had a great sense of humor and she would have thought how funny it was that this recognition hap- pened so many years after t h e f l o o d w h e n I w a s already almost in my 90s." After many interviews a n d a n e x h i b i t i o n "Remembering the flood of Florence 50 years later," which was also displayed at the Embassy of Italy and the Italian Institute of Cul- ture of Washington, DC, Joe Baulstein was given a medal from the city of Flo- rence by the mayor of the time, Matteo Renzi, and a year later he published the book, The Colors of the F l o o d : P a s t , P r e s e n t a n d F u t u r e T h r o u g h the Unpublished Color P i c t u r e s b y J o e Blaustein. When the water finally subsided, Joe decided to go out at dawn, before anybody was out. The water was 38 ft at that point. He left his pensione at 6am and walked down to the Uffizi, through water and mud that were up to his knees Continued from page 20 Left: The Arno River and Ponte Vecchio during the flood (Photo courtesy of Joe Blaustein) Right: Blaustein with his book (Photo: Silvia Giudici) The flood caused immense damages to the city and to its artistic patrimony (Photos courtesy of Joe Blaustein) LIFE PEOPLE PLACES HERITAGE

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