On 5 September 1993, Emperor Akihito of Japan visited the Basilica of San Marco in Florence as part of a diplomatic European tour. A squadron of press followed him as he admired the church’s renaissance paintings – the archangel Gabriel, the dramatic Visione di San Tommaso d’Aquino. Among them was Fabrizio Giovannozzi, a young Florentine photojournalist. He saw a photo opportunity and asked the Emperor to move closer to the artworks. “You could have heard a pin drop,” Giovannozzi recalls with a smile. “Everyone in the church was petrified, dumbfounded – you’re not supposed to speak to the Emperor.” But he got the shot.
Today, Giovannozzi presides over a huge archive of such historic moments in Florence’s photographic history: Torrini Fotogiornalismo. The collection was founded in 1944 by Giulio Torrini, a well-regarded photo reporter for Associated Press, and is housed in the 13th-century Sacchetti tower, a short stroll from the Duomo.
