One of her photos, in which she is looking back with her chin up and her hands folded on her chest, was later displayed in the shop window.
Known as the "ballet girl," Hong's graceful pose has been frozen in the picture for more than 50 years. She told the Shanghai Daily that she still felt transported to the past when seeing the picture again.
Unfortunately, all of her photos taken by Sanzetti were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976).
Hong did not pursue ballet stardom, but became an architectural designer after graduating from the city's Tongji University, and then went to Beijing to work with her husband until she retired.
In the same year, You Meiying also took her one-year-old son, Sun Xun, to Sanzetti's studio.
Just a couple of days ago, the now 58-year-old Sun helped his 85-year-old mother to see their photo, in which Sun sits in his mother's arms.
"It was a happy day because it was Sun's first birthday, so his father and I took him to the studio to take a family picture," You recalled.
She added that Sanzetti made them feel relaxed, since her husband, who did not speak good Chinese then, felt comfortable talking with Sanzetti in English.
Now 82, Cao Lizhen also picked up her engagement photo. She and her husband had it taken while they were in their 20s, and now, according to the Shanghai Daily, they are preparing for their 60th wedding anniversary.
Cao commented that Sanzetti was like a "director," who guided them through different poses in his fluent Shanghai dialect.
Long-cherished dream
His stepson revealed that Sanzetti had a deep attachment to Shanghai. He set up four studios there at the peak of his career and owned a car, a private driver and a chef. Most importantly, he fell in love there.
The two married in the late 1940s or early 1950s, when Sanzetti was already in his 50s, while his wife was still in her 20s. Unfortunately, the marriage did not last long and they never had their own children, though his wife brought a girl from a former marriage to the family.
In 1955, when China was undergoing a dramatic socialist transformation in capitalist industrial and commercial enterprises, Sanzetti sold his studios to a Chinese due to difficulties adapting to the changes.
He taught photography in an international school for another two years and then decided to leave Shanghai, where he had spent his greatest years.
People have speculated that Sanzetti wanted to depart from the city where he had lived for 35 years possibly because he was brokenhearted after getting divorced.
Though never able to go back, Sanzetti missed Shanghai, his old clients and the local food very much, according to his stepson. "His room is full of memories of China and Shanghai, which he cherished in unforgotten affection."
