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Andrea Monti

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  • Buildings,  Colour,  Daily photo,  Rome,  Winter

    A Lamppost

    November 26, 2014 /

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    Andrea Monti

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    Hard Spam

    April 1, 2013

    Glancing Books In A Brussels’Night

    November 12, 2015

    The Kiev 60 and a fix for the frame spacing issue

    October 8, 2023
  • Buildings,  Colour,  Daily photo,  Rome,  Winter

    Life Within the Post Office

    November 24, 2014 /

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    Andrea Monti

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    A Bitter Sweet

    March 23, 2013

    Luck is an Attitude

    January 25, 2014

    When the parking’s lost

    May 16, 2013
  • Colour,  Daily photo,  Restaurants&Bar,  Winter

    A Beverage Dispenser

    November 21, 2014 /

    The scene is dim, almost swallowed by shadow, yet two islands of light remain. At the centre of the frame, a refrigerated Coca-Cola display glows cold blue-white, its bottles and cans lined like soldiers on parade. Beside it, an older vending machine hums softly, its red housing lit from within by a warmer, almost nostalgic orange. Together they form a diptych of light—past and present vending, side by side. This photograph thrives on contrasts: the artificial chill of the drink cooler against the tungsten warmth of the coin-operated relic, the corporate gloss of branded red against the creeping darkness of a closed café. In the far right, upturned chairs signal…

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    Andrea Monti

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    Shooting Sanda (Chinese Kickboxing) Bouts

    June 26, 2025

    Welcome in the New (?) Year

    January 1, 2014

    Luggages

    April 20, 2019
  • Colour,  Daily photo,  Fighters,  People,  Winter

    Duel Inside The Cage

    November 20, 2014 /

    I shot this during an amateur MMA bout—tight quarters, fast motion, uneven lighting, and no second takes. What I wanted was proximity: to feel the tension hanging between the two fighters as they size each other up in the few quiet seconds before contact. I framed it just behind one of them, using his shoulder as a natural vignette to guide the viewer’s eye toward the opponent’s face. The focus is deliberately shallow. I could have chased clarity, but that wasn’t the point. The blurred expression of the man in the background says more than a tack-sharp portrait ever could. His intensity survives the softness. What you lose in detail,…

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    Andrea Monti

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    Matching Nails

    September 18, 2017

    So What?

    December 7, 2013

    Sailing Home

    October 4, 2023
  • Colour,  Daily photo,  Doors&Windows,  Past&Relics,  Winter

    An Old Wi(n)dow

    November 17, 2014 /

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    Andrea Monti

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    Should I Stay or Should I Go?

    November 29, 2013

    Early Leave at Bruxelles-Midi

    March 23, 2014

    Late

    December 31, 2012
  • Colour,  Daily photo,  Landscape,  Winter

    Pavement

    November 16, 2014 /

    Look down. That’s where the history usually hides. This photo was taken not for what it shows, but for what it holds: time, pressure, order, and the slow, quiet work of weather. Pebbles set into concrete. Bricks pressed into place. Moss finding the lines and growing into them without permission. There’s nothing dramatic here—no subject in the conventional sense. Just texture and pattern and subtle, lived-in contrast. Whites, greens, browns, a bit of erosion, and a soft blue cast that comes from early evening or maybe reflected sky. A patch of street that thousands have stepped over without ever seeing. Sometimes photography is about finding the unnoticed—framing a space so…

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    Andrea Monti

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    Bored

    March 7, 2013

    Denegata Justitia

    March 2, 2020

    Vinyl Never Dies

    September 2, 2013
  • B&W,  Buildings,  Daily photo,  Past&Relics,  Winter

    Faces in the Façade: A Ghostly Smile in Stone

    November 15, 2014 /

    The camera tilts upward, catching the weathered skin of a building where plaster peels like old parchment. Two circles and an arch, carved decades ago, sit quietly above the passageway. Yet in this photograph, the mind cannot help but play: the decoration forms a round-eyed, wide-mouthed face, its features soft and slightly comic. The resemblance is uncanny—here is the echo of the Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters, peering down with an oblivious grin. The cracked and flaking surface becomes its aging skin, the faded stucco a reminder that even ghosts of pop culture can find new haunts in architecture. Light and shadow turn structural detail into character. The deep arch below reads…

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    Andrea Monti

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    Evolution in Red

    November 20, 2019

    Interior Design at Aurum

    May 26, 2013

    Crowd Control

    February 14, 2016
  • Colour,  Daily photo,  People,  Winter

    Three’s Company

    November 14, 2014 /

    Public benches are theatres of the unscripted. I caught this trio suspended in a casual triangle—neither fully connected nor entirely apart. The geometry between them is tense, not hostile, but uncertain. They don’t pose; they orbit each other, and the moment belongs to that hesitation. The photo hinges on spatial rhythm. The wide format stretches the composition just enough to isolate each figure, but the concrete shadows and the circular bench lock them into an unspoken narrative. The light slices the scene diagonally, a crisp late afternoon beam that exaggerates contrast and textures—the pavement, the blue pillar, even the worn telephone on the left. That phone, by the way, plays…

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    Andrea Monti

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    Inside the Nazario Sauro

    November 26, 2020

    5 (random) frames of Bruxelles with a MIR-1B, a Pentax ME Super and a Kodak TMax400

    March 19, 2025

    Should I Seat?

    December 15, 2021
  • Colour,  Daily photo,  Rome,  Winter

    Reluctant

    November 11, 2014 /

    It is a simple gesture, easily missed. But in that tension between movement and resistance lies a deeper reading of emotion and instinct. The dog, powerful and proud, lowers its head and anchors its weight as if reluctant to proceed—not from fear, but perhaps from nostalgia, uncertainty, or simply the inertia of old age. There is a moment of friction in this otherwise ordinary urban vignette: the human strides forward, while the dog—the loyal shadow, the constant companion—glances back, hesitates, drags its paws against the direction of motion. The leash, loosely held, is not a tool of command but a symbolic tether. It binds not through force, but through trust.…

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    Andrea Monti

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    The Sinking Giant

    December 6, 2013

    Modern Times

    January 6, 2013

    Knowledge in the Atelier (or: The First Shot of 2026)

    January 1, 2026
  • Colour,  Daily photo,  Rome,  Winter

    Ottica Boncompagni

    November 7, 2014 /

    Walking through the streets of Rome with a camera in hand, I often find that shopfronts—particularly those that stubbornly resist the homogenisation of modern branding—tell more about a city’s cultural fabric than any monument. Ottica Boncompagni, captured here in this image, is a perfect example. The sign is visually loud, unapologetically retro, and absolutely Roman. The heavy, rounded typography in ochre and crimson recalls a distinctly 1970s aesthetic—an era of optimism and visual experimentation that still clings to the façades of certain Roman quartieri. And yet, this is not kitsch. It’s lived-in design, aged not by affectation but by time and endurance. From a technical perspective, the composition sits squarely…

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    Andrea Monti

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    What Could I Do?

    April 18, 2016

    Kime in Photography

    June 9, 2013

    Counter-intuitive Focus

    February 9, 2020
  • B&W,  Daily photo,  Gates&Fences,  Lines,  Winter

    A Fence

    November 6, 2014 /

    What drew me to make this photograph was not the fence itself, but the way it interacted with the geometry behind it. The wire grid overlays the diagonal of the concrete stair and handrail, creating a tension between rigid containment and directional movement. The eye wants to follow the slope upward, yet is repeatedly interrupted by the vertical and horizontal bars in the foreground. In terms of composition, the alignment was deliberate. I positioned the frame so that the grid sat almost perfectly square, avoiding converging lines that would soften its structural authority. The diagonal cuts through the otherwise orthogonal arrangement, introducing a dynamic that stops the image from becoming…

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    Andrea Monti

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    Relax At The Rapallo’s Marina

    August 2, 2014

    Cold Freezing Tour Through Oslo’s Fjord

    October 4, 2014

    Nick Beggs

    July 12, 2017
  • Colour,  Daily photo,  Groceries,  Rome,  Winter

    A Grocery Store in Rome

    November 5, 2014 /

    Some photographs emerge not from the pursuit of the exceptional, but from the quiet insistence of the everyday. This frame, captured in Rome, is one of them. I didn’t wait for decisive moments or orchestrate elements. I simply stood in front of this unassuming mini market, with its fluorescent signage blinking “COLD DRINKS” and “APERTO,” and let the banality speak. The storefront is wedged into a stone facade, a brutal contrast softened by the cluttered joy of cheap pleasures: laminated posters of ice creams, fizzy drinks stacked like bricks, and a faded theatre poster wedged between glossy wrappers. You can almost smell the dusty coolness inside — a refuge from…

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    Andrea Monti

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    Americana Skating – Italian National Championship 2019

    February 4, 2019

    Stinky Shoes

    June 3, 2015

    So Long, Eos-M

    January 17, 2014
  • Cars&Bikes,  Colour,  Daily photo,  Rome,  Winter

    A Blue Vespa

    November 3, 2014 /

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    Andrea Monti

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    @Rome Maker Faire – 1

    October 9, 2014

    Not A Rorschach Inkblot

    December 24, 2017

    Staring At The Infinite (While Waiting For The Fishes)

    August 1, 2014
  • B&W,  Daily photo,  Visual,  Winter

    Ramping Up

    September 16, 2014 /

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    Andrea Monti

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    Carl Zeiss Jena Triotar 85/4 and Nikon Z5 – An Empirical Field Test

    January 28, 2026

    Staring At The Infinite

    August 22, 2013

    The Scooter

    March 1, 2013
  • B&W,  Daily photo,  Past&Relics,  Winter

    Food For Thought

    September 14, 2014 /

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    Andrea Monti

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    5 frames with a Canon R6 Mk II and its RF 50/1,2 L USM

    September 28, 2024

    Lunchtime

    February 18, 2013

    Late Night Conversation at Cardinal’s Wharf

    September 29, 2016
  • Colour,  Daily photo,  Past&Relics,  Winter

    A Rusted Window

    September 11, 2014 /

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    Andrea Monti

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    Settled in the wrong place

    January 11, 2017

    Footprints

    May 19, 2013

    Even

    July 9, 2016
  • Colour,  Daily photo,  Landscape,  Winter

    The Chicken

    September 10, 2014 /

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    Andrea Monti

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    Common Fate

    November 15, 2013

    When the parking’s lost

    May 16, 2013

    Waiting to Go Home

    December 21, 2013
  • Colour,  Daily photo,  People,  Winter

    An Early Morning Fishing Expedition

    July 29, 2014 /

    I shot this just after sunrise. Light was low but clear, casting long shadows and warming the palette without oversaturating the sand. The three men—two pushing, one walking alongside—form a diagonal that pulls the eye from left to right, through netting, boat, and beach. The scene holds movement without blur. Every element is in transition. I framed from distance using a moderate telephoto to compress the layers—foreground vegetation, safety fencing, beach, and deep field of straw umbrellas. The shallow depth of field separates the action while still referencing the beach’s infrastructure. I let the background stay busy. It adds context, not confusion. Exposure was tricky. Highlights off the boat’s rubber…

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    Andrea Monti

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    A Priest Walking Through the Graffiti Streets

    October 19, 2019

    Galaxy S21 Ultra 5g. The difference between Marketing and Reality in Image Quality

    January 24, 2021

    A Manual-Focus Atteimpt on a Moving Target

    July 26, 2013
  • Colour,  Daily photo,  Social Control,  Winter

    On Air

    July 22, 2014 /

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    Andrea Monti

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    A Fence

    November 6, 2014

    Keep Out!

    November 30, 2019

    Windows

    September 15, 2014
  • Bruxelles,  Colour,  Daily photo,  Restaurants&Bar,  Winter

    Nightlife in Bruxelles

    June 27, 2014 /

    You can smell it before you hear it — the warm hum of beer, laughter, breath crystallising in the cold. This photo, taken in the backstreets of Brussels, isn’t a postcard of nightlife. It’s a sketch. Loose, fast, half in shadow. Which makes it all the more true. Cafés and pubs stack signs on top of each other like citations — Delirium, Floris Bar, Café, Pub, Garden. Every name lit, every door half-open, promising exactly what you need at this hour. But the terrace tables are empty, stacked in rows like punctuation marks between stories. It’s too cold to sit. Too late to be still. The people gather where the…

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    Andrea Monti

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    Abstract

    May 9, 2023

    Nature gets its space back…

    November 7, 2018

    Professional Courtesy

    March 4, 2026
  • Colour,  Daily photo,  Milan,  People,  Winter

    Zebra Crossing, Again…

    June 22, 2014 /

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    Andrea Monti

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    A coffee at Saint Eustachio’s

    February 4, 2016

    Norina shouts at Don Pasquale

    December 12, 2022

    What lasts after a party…

    April 25, 2013
  • Bookstores,  Colour,  Daily photo,  Paris,  People,  Winter

    Quality Check. Try Before You Buy

    April 10, 2014 /

    This image was taken outside a Parisian bookstore, a moment as classic as it is current: a man stands in the entrance, thumbing through a photobook, absorbed but casual. It’s not staged—he didn’t even glance at the camera. He was too focused, as anyone who’s spent hours weighing the purchase of one more photography book will understand. His expression wasn’t about doubt; it was about judgment—quality check, plain and simple. The composition offered itself. Framed by the bookstore’s open door, the man becomes the central figure in a visual funnel, surrounded by vertical stacks of books, postcards, and prints. The image flattens space into layered density—foreground filled with titles, background…

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    Andrea Monti

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    Processing a DSLR Digitised Black and White Film with Affinity Photo

    January 24, 2023

    Traffic Jam in Bruxelles

    April 7, 2014

    Footprints

    May 19, 2013
  • Bruxelles,  Colour,  Daily photo,  People,  Winter

    Perfect Strangers

    April 5, 2014 /

    This was shot at a crossing in Brussels. Late afternoon, golden hour starting to lean into haze, and the kind of sidelight that makes the most mundane street scenes feel sculptural. I wasn’t looking for a story—I was just following the light. What I got instead was this: two people, frozen in proximity, framed by urban geometry and indifferent routine. They didn’t know each other. That much was clear. No shared glances, no body language suggesting connection. Just two people waiting for the light to change, locked in that brief, suspended moment before movement resumes. But visually, they worked in tandem—her neon green jacket, his mustard ochre coat, both cutting…

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    Andrea Monti

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    The Joy of Computational Photography

    September 22, 2026

    Waiting for the hearing

    February 19, 2013

    Leitz Summicron 50/2 and Nikon Z5 – An empirical field test

    January 3, 2026
  • B&W,  Bruxelles,  Daily photo,  Social Control,  Visual,  Winter

    National Security

    April 4, 2014 /

    A danger for the National Security? This picture is nothing special, but for the fact that while I was taking it a security guard at the European Parliament tried to stop me on the “National Security” excuse, by claiming that photos were not allowed. Minding the lesson of “Stand your ground” I countered politely the requests of the guard, by telling him: – First: shooting in public spaces is perfectly legal, – Second: there where no “no-photos allowed” signs, – Third: “I am a lawyer and a journalist. I checked both EU and Belgian Law and find nothing that could prevent me to do what I am doing. Could you…

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    Andrea Monti

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    Using a 1960 Leica Elmarit 90/2,8 on a Fuji X-T3

    April 5, 2021

    The Ferrania Film Series – Episode 1 – Ferrania Orto shot on October/November 2023

    August 7, 2024

    Hands of a Steward

    November 22, 2019
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