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Ninalee Allen Craig, subject of iconic "American Girl in Italy" photos, dies at 90
Retweeted by David Fahrenthold: https://twitter.com/Fahrenthold
Some viewed the photo as depicting street harassment. But to the woman at the center, it represented nothing more than “a symbol of a woman having an absolutely wonderful time.”
Link to tweet
Obituaries
Ninalee Allen Craig, subject of iconic ‘American Girl in Italy’ photos, dies at 90
“American Girl in Italy” was taken in Florence in 1951 and featured Ninalee Allen, 23 at the time. (Ruth Orkin Photo Archive)
By Ellie Silverman May 3
ellie.silverman@washpost.com
In August 1951, at a $1-a-night hotel in Florence, two American women came face to face in the hallway one morning. ... One was Ruth Orkin, a promising 29-year-old photojournalist who was seeking a subject for a magazine photo spread about the experiences of women traveling abroad alone — a rare thing to do at the time. ... he other was Ninalee Allen, a 23-year-old adventure-seeking graduate of Sarah Lawrence College who had been traveling solo for months through France, Spain and Italy. She went by “Jinx” because she thought it sounded “exciting.”
“She was beautiful, luminescent and, unlike me, very tall,” Orkin later told the New York Times. Ms. Allen agreed to the photo shoot as a lark, and off they went through the streets of Florence. ... Imagining she was Beatrice from Dante’s “Divine Comedy,” one of her favorite books, Ms. Allen held her shawl, stood straight and strode past more than a dozen men leering at her from all directions at the corner of Piazza della Repubblica. Orkin ran ahead, Ms. Allen recalled, and “took one picture, asked me to back up, and took a second. That’s all that was done at that location, two pictures.” It took about 35 seconds.
“I spoke only to the two men on the motor scooter,” she told the Times in 1995. “I yelled to them to tell the others not to look at the camera.” ... In less than one minute, Orkin had captured what would become one of the more indelible photographs of the era, titled “American Girl in Italy.”
....
Mrs. Craig, 90, who went on to marry a Venetian count and a Canadian steel industry executive, died May 2 at a hospital in Toronto of complications from lung cancer, said her stepson Alex Passi. ... Ninalee Allen was born in Indianapolis on Nov. 6, 1927. Her father was the personnel director for L.S. Ayres, a department store, and her mother was a homemaker. She studied art history at Sarah Lawrence in Bronxville, N.Y., and graduated in 1950.
....
Ellie Silverman is a metro reporter covering crime and courts. She has previously contributed to the Seattle Times, McClatchy, the Hill and the Capital Gazette. Ellie graduated from the University of Maryland, where she reported for The Diamondback and conducted the independent student newspaper’s first Ouija board interview.
Follow @esilverman11
Ninalee Allen Craig, subject of iconic ‘American Girl in Italy’ photos, dies at 90
“American Girl in Italy” was taken in Florence in 1951 and featured Ninalee Allen, 23 at the time. (Ruth Orkin Photo Archive)
By Ellie Silverman May 3
ellie.silverman@washpost.com
In August 1951, at a $1-a-night hotel in Florence, two American women came face to face in the hallway one morning. ... One was Ruth Orkin, a promising 29-year-old photojournalist who was seeking a subject for a magazine photo spread about the experiences of women traveling abroad alone — a rare thing to do at the time. ... he other was Ninalee Allen, a 23-year-old adventure-seeking graduate of Sarah Lawrence College who had been traveling solo for months through France, Spain and Italy. She went by “Jinx” because she thought it sounded “exciting.”
“She was beautiful, luminescent and, unlike me, very tall,” Orkin later told the New York Times. Ms. Allen agreed to the photo shoot as a lark, and off they went through the streets of Florence. ... Imagining she was Beatrice from Dante’s “Divine Comedy,” one of her favorite books, Ms. Allen held her shawl, stood straight and strode past more than a dozen men leering at her from all directions at the corner of Piazza della Repubblica. Orkin ran ahead, Ms. Allen recalled, and “took one picture, asked me to back up, and took a second. That’s all that was done at that location, two pictures.” It took about 35 seconds.
“I spoke only to the two men on the motor scooter,” she told the Times in 1995. “I yelled to them to tell the others not to look at the camera.” ... In less than one minute, Orkin had captured what would become one of the more indelible photographs of the era, titled “American Girl in Italy.”
....
Mrs. Craig, 90, who went on to marry a Venetian count and a Canadian steel industry executive, died May 2 at a hospital in Toronto of complications from lung cancer, said her stepson Alex Passi. ... Ninalee Allen was born in Indianapolis on Nov. 6, 1927. Her father was the personnel director for L.S. Ayres, a department store, and her mother was a homemaker. She studied art history at Sarah Lawrence in Bronxville, N.Y., and graduated in 1950.
....
Ellie Silverman is a metro reporter covering crime and courts. She has previously contributed to the Seattle Times, McClatchy, the Hill and the Capital Gazette. Ellie graduated from the University of Maryland, where she reported for The Diamondback and conducted the independent student newspaper’s first Ouija board interview.
Follow @esilverman11
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