Tiny Florence • Firenze Piccolina

Florence from Below

In the busy streets of Florence, memories are being created every day by locals and newcomers, united by sharing the experience of the city. Photographs provide a memory frozen in time, keeping that moment alive for everyone to cherish. When life moves too fast, these snapshots capture things we’d typically miss. This iteration of Tiny Florence by Summer 2026’s photography students bypasses the stately grandeur of Florence’s big-ticket sites to showcase what makes up the city’s character: its people. The exhibit includes digital black-and-white photos of seven university students revealing intimate details of Florence. The small size of the photos invites the viewer to pause, take a breath, and look closely to notice the little moments of humanity within the city’s many nooks and crannies. After seeing the sights and marveling at the big picture of the city, the viewer can interact on a personal level, offering a more complete immersion into Florentine culture. Additionally, Tiny Florence represents the university’s spirit of collaboration as its curating and photography students worked together to actualize the exhibit. Each student brought their own perspective to the project and came together to create something greater than the sum of its parts, just as each tiny photo comes together to show the viewer an altogether new story of Florence, and just as each person in the city makes it a living, breathing thing.