Last saturday I went to Napoli to eat a pizza (well, a couple, actually) and take some photos of the city, that is going to celebrate the third Scudetto of its football team. Napoli is one of the best city in Italy for Street Photography, its vibes and its carousel of characters is really something great. Here some photos I took during my walk.
Two days ago, as I saw this guy smoking on a bench, I approached him without being noticed and I took some photos of his “fog”. I like to act as a ninja when I do street photography (first photo)! Yesterday I took a bus and there was a nice situation for street (third photo), then I was at that “yellow” corner and I thought that it was a good point to wait for the right person to walk in the frame. I was lucky because just a moment after arrived a guy with a balloon in the hand (last photo)!
This was my photoweeek, more or less. How was yours?
I always think that one of the most important thing in photography, especially street photography, is to tell the times we are living for the future, in particular the life of the cities, that change day by day, so fast. For example, in March 2011 I was visiting New York City, walking everywhere and taking pictures. I remember when, on the 59th Street in Manhattan, I saw this man having a cigarette break outside an Italian restaurant, characterized by a beautiful and huge red wall. I loved that scene, the contrast between the red of the building and that white dressed man. It’s one of my favorite street photos I took in NYC.
So, this is how was that wall in 2011, this is the picture I’m talking about:
Thanks to Alessandro Passerini for this beautiful talk about art and photography and how hard can be working in Italy for an artist. The talk is an episode of his feature Vernissage on YouTube and unfortunately it’s only in Italian. In this video my thoughts, my story and the Top 5 of the photographers that most influenced my way of photograph:
Saturday morning I was drinking a coffee in my apartment when I suddenly heard drums and whistles fill the silence. They came from the street, so I went to my window and I saw a parade, there was lot of people walking and dancing. So I dress with the first thing I found and I ran downstairs to take part of the parade and take some pictures too. It was the 14th edition of the Anti-racist Carnival of Garbatella, my neighborhood. It was really fun. Here a selection of images I took:
Joel Meyerowitz is one of the greatest photographer of all time. In this photo, taken in Paris in 1967, there is so much to tell, it’s for sure one of the greatest street photos ever taken. We are immediately catapulted in the Paris street, spectators of its daily life, surprised and unable to understand what just happened.
There is a man on the ground, maybe fallen, maybe fainted, and in Meyerowitz’s photo everybody is looking at him, like a centripetal force that capture the eyes (included ours). Everything is freezed in this amazing shot, a mistery that involves passers-by, a cyclist, workers, with a traffic jam in the background that recalls the crowd on the right side of the photo.
As Meyerowitz said: “A photograph allows such contradictions to exist in everyday life, more than that, it encourages them. Photography is about being exquisitely present”.
A nice walk in the afternoon to enjoy the sun and take some pictures. I love the first image, a couple on Ponte Sisto, and it would be nice to find them to give them this photo as a gift. It really would be nice. The second photo made me think a lot. When I was a teenager I used to do stupid jokes with my friends, talking a lot about nonsenses. I enjoyed their company. In this photo everyone of this classroom is watching at his/her smartphone. What happened? I don’t want to judge, it’s just a consideration about our times. What do you think?
This photo, known as The Wreck (of the Arden Craig), was taken in 1911 by Francis James Mortimer off the Isles of Scilly, west of Cornwall. Mortimer was a pioneer of pictorial photography and he focused his pictures about sea scenes, the set of great part of his production. In this photo he captured the shipwreck Arden Craig, a three-masted wheat ship that crashed into rocks due the fog. In 1911 take photos outside studios was really difficult, cameras were heavy and shoot on a boat must be very hard, this is just to understand how great is Mortimer’s work.
Yesterday I went in the Roman Chinatown, the Esquilino neighborhood, to watch how the Chinese community (and Romans too) celebrated the Chinese New Year, the year of the rabbit. It was the perfect situation to take some pictures and ask a girl for a portrait. This kind of event are really great for street photography, there is a lot of people and a lot of story to tell through photography. There was a kid peeping behind the curtain a show on the stage, I loved that. Here a gallery of image I took yesterday during the celebrations of Chinese New Year.
A beautiful walk to the Musei Capitolini is always a good way to discover, once again, the beautiful art of Romans and the stunning past of my city. Sometimes I forget to live in a city like Rome, in such a incredible place, so it’s important to remind me, through museums and walks, how beautiful can be, despite the difficulties, costs etc.
Living is easy with one eye closed 