It’s spring of 1953 and Rosella’s passion for photography grows faster than the grass on the lawn of the Cathedral of Learning. He follows it, camera in hand, throughout his time at the University of Pittsburgh, capturing everything from touchdown ticker tape at the old Pitt Stadium to commuters awaiting the arrival of a Fifth Avenue streetcar.

When he isn’t photographing, Rosella pursues a degree from Pitt’s School of Dental Medicine. He graduates in 1957 and goes directly into service as a naval dentist. After two years of service, he leaves the Navy and begins his own dental practice, where he is successful for more than 30 years, retiring in 1993.

Over the years, he never forgets those happy, creative years with his camera at Pitt — or the images he captured. That’s why, around 2014, Rosella decides to revisit them. He thinks they might be worth compiling into a book of photography. When others see his captivating work, they agree. 

The result is “Pittsburgh Streets 1950s,” a collection of 115 black-and-white and color images Rosella produced during and shortly after his time at Pitt. Its release last fall was celebrated with a talk and reception at the Heinz History Center as part of its Italian American program.

In the book’s foreword, photographer Linda Benedict-Jones, the first curator of photography at Carnegie Museum of Art and former executive director of Pittsburgh’s Silver Eye Center for Photography, writes that Rosella’s images “provide insight not only into the way people acted and interacted, not just which carnival or parade they attended, what clothes they wore or cars they drove, but perhaps most importantly [insight] into what a young photographer found worthy of examination.”