10 Years of Urban Melodies

In December 2012 I was returned since a few months from a trip to Istanbul where I discovered in a exhibition Jak Baruh’s photos, a Turkish photographer who works with multiple exposures: it was an illumination. I wrote a small note in my notebook and then I left it there for two-three months to “rest”. On December 14, 2012, I finally started working on some photos of Paris, without even imagining what it would lead me to. It wasn’t a very successful test, but it was the seed of a photographic project that I now have the good fortune and privilege to call work. Ten years later, hundreds and hundreds of URBAN MELODIES are hanging on walls all over the world, thanks to them I did a private exhibition in Chicago, I went on a cruise ship, in Jordan, on the French Riviera and hopefully, in the future, in other beautiful places.

Roma Coast to Coast 2022 – Mura Aureliane

Here we are. I talked a lot about my new Roma Coast to Coast, so you already know everything. Now the gallery is finally ready, so there’s nothing else to say, I just have to show you the pictures. I enjoyed this walk very much and I hope you will enjoy it too. Here I’ll show you just a selection, the entire reportage (98 photos) for now is only on my Facebook page. This is the result of a 20km walk along the ancient Aurelian Walls: do you like it?

Roma Coast to Coast 2022 – Preview

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.

Roma Coast to Coast – Linea A

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.

-3 Days To My Next Roma Coast to Coast!

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).

How I Create My Multiple Exposure Artworks

If now I can live with my art, I have to thank Turkish photographer Jak Baruh and his multiple exposures: I found his works ten years ago in a museum in Istanbul and they were a spark of inspiration that brought me to begin my famous series “Urban Melodies” (read the full story here). In the first half of 2022, a beautiful couple from Austalia commissionated me a Multiple Exposure work to realize in Antibes, France (read the full story about my Antibes art commission). It was the most complex and structured image I’ve ever created and now I want to unravel the mistery and show you every layer of this beautiful artwork.

First of all, it’s composed by 14 photos (well, actually 11, because the last photo is divided in four parts). Every layer contains a part of the city or a note of color, in order to create the final image, with the right mood, the right elements, filling the gap between the city that I visited and the city that I have in my memories (or dreams). We are going to see how I create this multiple exposure artwork.

1. First image of the artwork. I had to choose a background just to set the tone of the final image, so I choose this one with the blue sky, the sea and a little of the Antibes skyline, just to have immediately some general element. That palm trees will stay very clear at the end of the process.

“Divided Soul” by David Alan Harvey

Since the 1970s Harvey has been taking photographs in Spain, Portugal, Cuba, Mexico, Honduras, Brazil and Chile. A passionate and divided soul, where tradition and ritual are inherent in everyday life, is revealed in these photographs of pulsating carnivals in Trinidad, fervent religious ceremonies in Brazil, and intense Easter parades in Puerto Rico. Harvey minimizes the distance between himself and his subjects, producing images that capture the natural choreography of people within places – images that resonate with the magic of their subjects.

“Divided Soul” represents David Alan Harvey’s 20-year journey through the Spanish and Portuguese diaspora in the Americas. In the stunning selection of more than 100 colour photographs that became the book “Divided Soul”, Harvey explores the exuberance and incongruities of Hispanic life and culture that hold for him an endless fascination. I studied his work in the last days and it’s really amazing, Harvey’ style – so close to the subjects – is very inspiring, he really knew how to approach local life during a travel and capture the inner soul of a place. In the gallery, a very small selection of his works.

Q & A – Film People Project

My Film People Project was born in February 2019. It’s a series of portraits where each person is photographed with the title of his/her favorite film, or what he/she consider the film of his/her heart. Since often the people portrayed (and not only) ask me many questions about this project, I decided to collect the questions on this page to fully satisfy your curiosity. So far I realized 168 photos and I can’t wait for the next!

Why did you choose to do this project?
There are so many influences that have then flowed into this project. First of all, I studied cinema, which is perhaps my greatest passion, and I liked the idea of ​​combining two things that I love very much: cinema and photography. This was definitely the spark. Then, also influenced by the beautiful Humans of New York project, I thought it would be interesting to discover, through the choice of the favorite film, the stories behind this choice, why a person wrote the title of a film rather than another. I believe that the choice of the favorite film can reveal a lot about the person portrayed: an intimate corner of his person, somehow a piece of his soul, so I liked this idea of ​​discovering which film was behind the people I meet. Normally I realize urban photography and street photography, but I have always been fascinated by portraits, a photographic genre that I really desired to experiment: I am quite a shy person and I knew that this project would also be a challenge for me with myself, to improve an aspect of me that, with the work I do, I definitely need to develop.

Photography and Other Stuff – Chapter 4

Welcome in a new chapter of PAOS (Photography And Other Stuff). I’m still in the Southern Italy, in Monopoli, and I spent part of my last week at home with an unexpected host: the f***ing Corona! I’m ok and I’m waiting to be negative in the next few days. I had the chance to take some pictures in these boring days and translate my feelings in photography: a nice experiment. Before this strange week I went to a town I never been before, Noci, where I took a couple of pictures. Next weekend, if I’ll be negative as I believe, I’ll be in Roma again for a wedding, but next time I’ll write to you I’ll already be in Monopoli again.
And you? How was your week? Feel free to write me your personal PAOS in the comments, I’d like to see this little space as a open forum with a free exchange of ideas and experiences.
Before I let you read more, I close the introduction with this photo I took today downstairs, when I made a little walk to move my bones.

“Dom” di Stefano Mirabella

La parola polacca “Dom” significa “casa”. La casa alla quale, una volta l’anno, ritorna il fotografo romano Stefano Mirabella con la sua famiglia, precisamente a Cieszęta, villaggio rurale nel nord della Polonia. Un luogo dove la vita scorre lentamente, con le giornate scandite dal silenzio di un mondo quasi fuori dal tempo, in cui è la vitalità dei bambini a rompere l’equilibrio, a punteggiare il ritmo della natura. “Sarebbe davvero difficile percepire i minimi cambiamenti se non vivessi con loro solo per un breve periodo dell’anno”, dice Mirabella, “durante questo breve arco di tempo mi è naturale raccogliere frammenti, attimi e situazioni nel tentativo di scrivere un personalissimo diario di famiglia”. Questa bellissima raccolta di immagini, che vede protagonisti quasi esclusivamente i bambini e le bambine del luogo, ci mostra una vita di campagna in cui tutto è un gioco, ogni cosa è scoperta: da un tipico mezzo di lavoro come il trattore, agli animali da cortile (come le oche). Frammenti di vita che raccontano la sfida quotidiana di un gruppo di preadolescenti contro la noia dei giorni sempre uguali, contro l’ineluttabile severità della natura circostante. L’occhio del fotografo appare talvolta invisibile, talvolta scrutato a sua volta con curiosità, ma perennemente dentro la scena, parte integrante di un paesaggio descritto con la sensibilità di chi ci si sente a casa, o “Dom”, per l’appunto.