FRAGMENTS | Wayne Miller

Naples, located in Italy, bore the brunt of Allied bombings during World War II, making it the most heavily bombed city of that time. From 1940 to 1944, Naples endured more than two hundred bombing raids aimed at crippling its port and industrial infrastructure. In 1943 alone, the city faced approximately one hundred and eighty invasions.

Wayne Miller, an American photographer, was enlisted in the Navy and assigned to the Corps' photography unit, which was led by the renowned photographer Edward Steichen. Miller had the opportunity to be among the first to document the aftermath of the nuclear attack on Hiroshima, and his series of photographs depicting that historic event became some of his most well-known works from the war period.

During the 1940s, Miller spent extended periods in Naples, capturing the experiences of the city's children amidst wartime conditions, chronicling their extreme poverty and their determined efforts to eke out a living.