A small preview of Roma Coast to Coast 2022. 19km (well, actually I walked 22km…) along the ancient Aurelian Walls. A different way to discover Rome and its daily life. I spent around 7 hours to complete the route, I took tons of pictures and Rome was really beautiful, but now I need a couple of new legs! These are only 20 images, the gallery will be ready in the next few days.
Well, everybody is on Twitter knows that the last days were quite troubled, with a lot of employees that quitted their job due the behavior of Elon Musk and his controversial way to manage this social network. So many users, posting the hashtag #twittermigration, decided to open an account on Mastodon, waiting to understand the future of Twitter. I did the same: like almost every other social network (included Twitter), I opened two different accounts: one, in italian, where I write about movies, cinema and some personal stuff, and another more professional, in english, where I post photos and share my thoughts about photography.
On April 21, 2015, I walked for 21 kilometers following the route of the Metro Line A, from Battistini to Anagnina. It was my first “Roma Coast to Coast”, the beginning of a series that I would continue several times in the following years. The aim was a photographic project to tell the various nuances of Rome. During the walk I wrote some notes. The notes are of a few lines, but collected and put together they make up a story that is fragmented, perhaps confused, but which somehow gives the idea of that beautiful day on the streets of my city. So, 7 years after that walking photographic journey, here is the diary of my first “Roma Coast to Coast”, a project that I dedicated to the memory of a former primary school classmate, Leonardo, who loved this city very much and who passed away exactly that day.
Since 2015 I did five reportage walking through Rome. The first, the most important, was about the Linea A of the Roman subway (I walked for 21km, taking pictures along the same way, but in surface, of the subway). Now my Coast to Coast series is ready for be back, after three years. I’m going to walk for 19km along the ancient Aurelian Walls, the old city walls that surround the historical centre of Rome. Built between 270 and 275 at the behest of Emperor Aurelian, the Walls were supposed to defend Rome from the threat of invasion by the Germanic populations. The Aurelian Walls, today, are an integral part of the daily life of those who live in Rome and are witnesses of the changes that the city has gone through in almost 2000 years. In this photographic journey of the “Roma Coast to Coast” series, I’ll walk along the city walls (both the visible and the no longer existing ones), touching the 18 gates that made up the original Walls: some gates are closed today , others were replaced, others are still there to observe the life of the city. A circular journey that will start at Porta San Paolo, alongside the Pyramid of Cestius, and will cross Testaccio and Trastevere, skirting the Tiber up to Piazza del Popolo, then Piazza Fiume, San Lorenzo, San Giovanni and many other historical glimpses of the capital. A photographic journey to tell a different Rome, a different way to know it better.
You can follow my walk on Instagram stories (I’ll do some update occasionally) and in the very next days you can watch the gallery with this new reportage on my Facebook page (and later on my website).
Today I went to a beautiful exhibition in the Historic Centre of Rome. I dared leaving my apartment even though weather forecast said that it would be a rainy rainy day. It was the right afternoon not only for taking some good picture under the rain but also to visit a great exhibition in a wonderful location (“Eyeshot 2022”, I’ll talk about it in the next chapter of PAOS). And so it was, I’m happy for it. Here some image I took today.
A little walk in the neighborhood, before sunset. Yesterday the sky was cloudy so it wasn’t the best day for taking pictures (at least, until started to rain!). I rested a lot in front of the window of a Chinese restaurant, trying to play with the reflections and I realized a couple of images for my series “Raindrop Blues”. I enjoyed it. Then I went to the supermarket: as I told you before, it really was a little walk!
Summer is definitely gone. Even if this year in Rome it looked like endless, but it’s official, summer is gone. Days are shorter, darkness are eating our afternoons more and more, and it’s not easy to go out every day and take pictures. But there is some good news in the air: I’m working on a new reportage from my series “Roma Coast to Coast” (I’ll talk about that later) and, best news, the community of Roma Street Photography is finally back in town (same here, I’ll tell you more in the next paragraphs). My Film People Project is going on too and so, even I’m perennially unsatisfied with myself, good things are about to happen. Maybe. Well, welcome in this new chapter of PAOS, I don’t want to write more introduction because I have a lot of things to talk about. Let’s start, just after this photo taken the 1st of November, the day after Halloween.
I always loved taking pictures underground. Today I took the subway to meet a friend and, waiting for the train, I saw these men standing still under that warm neon light. It was a good scene for a photo, so I took my Ricoh from the pocket and I shot. It’s not the best photo I ever took but I’m happy with it.
Sunday I met some friends of Roma Street Photography community to walk together and take some pictures. When I was in Piazza Navona I noticed this pink-haired girl so I followed her to take some candid photos. The first is my favorite picture among those I took to her, do you agree?
“Roma” and “Street Photography” are two things that I have in my mind, always. Sometimes I wonder who, besides me, is telling my city through this photographic genre. Once there was a community of Roman street photographers, but after the pandemic that community not exists anymore (very sad, I know). So, I’d like to jot down a list of all the street photographers based in Rome, just to map who is telling my city through Street Photography. Please, suggest me what requirements a photographer need to have to be on this list: a website? Constancy? Exhibitions? Features on a magazine? Or what? I don’t want to judge the quality, it’s not my intent, only understand why a person should be on this list. Who can be defined street photographer? I mean, taking street photos twice in a year is not enough, I guess. Any idea?
Please help me to understand how to make this list and if you also have some name, be my guest!
In the meanwhile, a small gallery with some street photo of Rome, taken by other photographers.
(Stefano Mirabella)
Living is easy with one eye closed 