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Andrea Monti

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  • Beach&Shores,  Colour,  Daily photo,  People,  Winter

    Blowin in the Wind

    February 8, 2014 /

    Hopefully, he shouldn’t fall on the ground…

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    Andrea Monti

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    A Shadow

    July 24, 2014

    The three musket(b)eer

    May 11, 2013

    The Google Experiment

    February 1, 2014
  • B&W,  Daily photo,  Social Control,  Urban Landscape,  Winter

    Just a soccer field… Part 3

    February 5, 2014 /

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    Andrea Monti

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    A party that shall never come

    May 9, 2013

    Late-afternoon’s snack

    April 15, 2013

    Renovating Milan

    November 18, 2017
  • B&W,  Daily photo,  Photography,  Reportage,  Social Control,  Urban Landscape,  Winter

    Just a soccer field… Part 2

    February 4, 2014 /

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    Andrea Monti

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    Just A Cat

    June 29, 2014

    Deadly Bored

    January 6, 2020

    As Time Goes By

    June 11, 2013
  • B&W,  Daily photo,  Parks,  Reportage,  Social Control,  Winter

    Just a Soccer Field… Part 1

    February 3, 2014 /

    Just a soccer field… the only place where freedom lasts, but just for the time of a match.

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    Andrea Monti

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    Beach Party

    January 22, 2022

    Lightspeed

    August 6, 2015

    二千円

    December 20, 2023
  • B&W,  Daily photo,  Docks,  Visual,  Winter

    In-Eye

    February 2, 2014 /

    Photography has a curious way of leading the mind into patterns — an instinctive search for meaning, even when none exists. We are hardwired to interpret shapes and juxtapositions, to anthropomorphise objects, to find faces in clouds and stories in shadows. This image is one such case: a seemingly simple shot of a ship seen through a weathered window, yet the geometry conspires to suggest something far more figurative. Here, the diamond-shaped porthole becomes an eyelid, its corroded frame the brow, and beyond it, the bow of the ship forms an unmistakable iris and pupil. It’s a quiet trick of composition — one I noticed only after the fact —…

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    Andrea Monti

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    Trick or Treat?

    June 14, 2013

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

    March 19, 2025

    Uchi-Mata

    November 8, 2014
  • B&W,  Daily photo,  Photography,  Winter

    Good Idea

    January 31, 2014 /

    … bad execution. The shot would have been acceptable if the head of the fisherman had the sky as a background instead of the bow.

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    Andrea Monti

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    Inside The Palace of Power

    September 17, 2015

    At the theater, between two scenes

    June 15, 2015

    A kiss in the shade

    March 17, 2013
  • B&W,  Daily photo,  Docks,  People,  Winter

    Against the Tide

    January 30, 2014 /

    There’s a stillness in this frame that caught me before I even thought about the technical side. A lone figure on a bicycle, paused at the edge of the pier, framed by the unbroken horizon and the muted textures of concrete and water. The light is soft, almost hesitant — no harsh shadows, no dazzling highlights — as if the scene itself wanted to remain understated. I worked to keep the composition balanced but not too neat. The lamp post on the right anchors the image without overpowering it, while the figure sits almost at the centre, enough to draw the eye but still letting the expanse of sea and…

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    Andrea Monti

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    Leaving The Actor’s Studio

    January 14, 2014

    The Lost Battle

    January 11, 2014

    Waiting To Board At Santa Margherita Ligure

    August 16, 2014
  • B&W,  Daily photo,  Milan,  People,  Winter

    W Verdi

    January 29, 2014 /

    Milan rewards you when you walk slowly. I turned a corner and found a living quotation mark to a poster: an elderly man paused beneath a billboard of a stern, bearded face—Giuseppe Verdi by way of contemporary graphic design. The likeness was uncanny enough to make the old slogan in my head—Viva Verdi—mutate into “W Verdi,” a wink at how public imagery and real life can rhyme. I built the frame around that rhyme. The poster anchors the top-right quadrant while the man occupies the lower-left, a diagonal conversation that keeps the eye ping-ponging across the picture. I left generous negative space to let the pairing breathe; too tight and…

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    Andrea Monti

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    A Stop in Reggio Emilia

    February 21, 2024

    Stairway to nothing

    September 18, 2013

    Zombies

    March 4, 2021
  • Colour,  Daily photo,  Garbage,  Milan,  Winter

    Lost Cigarettes at Piazza Affari

    January 22, 2014 /

    The Milan Stock-Exchange is just closed, another stressful day is gone, so are the cigarettes. The Milan Stock Exchange has just closed. Another day of trading — of numbers, speculation, tension, and relief — is over. The square begins to exhale. The crowds thin, footsteps fade, and the traces of human presence remain in small, almost invisible ways. Here, in a shallow puddle on the cobblestones of Piazza Affari, the day’s residue is quietly recorded: cigarette butts, scraps, and the inverted grandeur of a neoclassical façade. I was drawn to the way the water held both the building’s form and the detritus of the day in a single frame. The reflection, sharp…

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    Andrea Monti

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    Love is like a flower

    May 18, 2013

    Shooting Kite Surfing

    September 22, 2024

    Under The Bridge

    June 27, 2016
  • Beach&Shores,  Colour,  Daily photo,  Docks,  Winter

    Let’s get the party started…

    January 20, 2014 /

    Fishing boats have a way of announcing themselves well before they reach the harbour wall. The sound of the engine carries over the water, but it’s the birds that really give them away — a moving cloud of wings and calls, circling, swooping, waiting for the scraps that will inevitably be thrown overboard. This shot catches the “Nuova Zita” in that precise moment of return, driving straight toward me, bow cutting through the water, foam rising in a perfect V. I chose a dead-centre composition, a choice some might consider too rigid, but here it felt essential. The boat’s symmetry — red trim framing the white hull, the vertical mast…

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    Andrea Monti

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    The Flying Dutchman… a sort of

    March 19, 2017

    Shooting Kite Surfing

    September 22, 2024

    Fun

    November 12, 2014
  • Colour,  Daily photo,  Winter

    The Guardian

    January 19, 2014 /

    Not scaring as a Pitbull would, but still deserving to be handled with care… He didn’t move. Not even when I approached with the camera. Not even when I paused to adjust the lens. He just stared—calm, unblinking, sure of his place. This photo was taken outside a closed wooden structure. Maybe a seasonal shack, maybe a beachside store. The railings were weathered, the wood silvered by sun and salt. Everything about the setting felt unfinished, in-between. Except for him. The black cat sat at the centre like he’d been assigned the role. Not hiding, not curious—just there. Positioned perfectly in the geometry of the fence, flanked by empty space…

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    Andrea Monti

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    The Shooter’s Dilemma

    July 12, 2014

    Backstage, Before the Downbeat

    May 4, 2023

    Yes, We…Can

    May 16, 2014
  • B&W,  Daily photo,  People,  Winter

    Late Night Arrival at Bertinoro’s Castle

    January 15, 2014 /

    There’s something about fog that eats light and sound in equal measure. At Bertinoro that night, the mist rolled in thick and silent, swallowing the medieval walls until they were no more than looming shapes. The only figure breaking the gloom was this woman, striding toward the castle gate with a purpose that suggested she hoped — perhaps against reason — that someone inside might still be awake. I shot this in black and white not as an afterthought, but because the scene demanded it. Colour would have been irrelevant here — the atmosphere was all about tonal gradation, shadow, and grain. Yes, grain. This isn’t the crisp, low-noise look…

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    Andrea Monti

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    So long and thank you for the fish

    February 6, 2014

    When the parking’s lost

    May 16, 2013

    Segway Chase in Villa Borghese

    April 27, 2013
  • Colour,  Daily photo,  New York,  People,  Spring

    Leaving The Actor’s Studio

    January 14, 2014 /

    No, the title is not a misspell. To perform as a true artist, the Actors Studio must actually become an actor’s studio. Shot handheld on a cold night in New York, I framed this outside the famous 44th Street façade of The Actors Studio. What drew me wasn’t the name, but the irony held in the glow above the door. Big, institutional lettering—THE ACTORS STUDIO—brightly lit, looming. Yet below it, a single man stands, barely visible, caught in the diffused downlight from the marquee. It wasn’t staged. He just was there—half-shadowed, alone, waiting. Technically, this is a push to the edge. ISO was high, grain heavy. Shadows crush into black. Highlights…

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    Andrea Monti

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    Though Choice

    June 23, 2014

    Shooting Italian 5 birilli

    May 18, 2025

    Washed

    November 22, 2015
  • Colour,  Daily photo,  New York,  Spring,  Streets&Squares

    The Lost Battle

    January 11, 2014 /

    Against the New York traffic, the controllers themselves, contended in vain.

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    Andrea Monti

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    Money Doesn’t Smell

    April 2, 2015

    Tables and Chairs, at Night

    May 7, 2013

    Different Stories

    December 30, 2023
  • Colour,  Daily photo,  Docks,  Winter

    Fisherman’s Friend

    January 10, 2014 /

    When the course is set back to the dock, especially at night, there is no better companion than the reassuring glow of the harbour’s twin beacons. These masts, painted in unmistakable red and green, have long served as silent guides, their geometry as familiar to mariners as the constellations above. This photograph, titled Fisherman’s Friend, plays not only on a brand name but on the enduring role of such structures in the choreography of safe returns. From a compositional standpoint, the image centres on the red mast, giving it commanding presence against a pastel-hued evening sky. The placement is deliberate—slightly forward and to the left of the green twin in…

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    Andrea Monti

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    Early Morning’s Cleanup

    July 21, 2013

    What Does ‘Professional’ Mean in Photography?

    March 19, 2024

    Backstage, Before the Downbeat

    May 4, 2023
  • Colour,  Daily photo,  Docks,  Winter

    Life And Work On A Fishing Boat

    January 9, 2014 /

    I took this just before dusk in a working harbour, where boats aren’t romanticised—they’re tools, piled with other tools, patched, rusted, functional. Riviera isn’t posing. It’s docked, burdened with skiffs, plastic crates, folded nets, and the quiet fatigue of a long shift at sea. The composition pushes tight against the frame, stacking hulls on hulls, blocking any clear horizon. The visual noise—cables, ropes, red crane arm—disrupts the scene enough to pull you into its clutter. The sky, soft and forgiving in the background, does little to alleviate the heaviness of the vessel. That contrast matters. Technically, the image holds despite the mixed lighting. The fading day cast a bluish tint…

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    Andrea Monti

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    Business people in Rome

    February 23, 2013

    Different Life

    June 24, 2016

    Just In Case

    June 9, 2014
  • Bruxelles,  Colour,  Daily photo,  Patisserie,  Winter

    What an Elegant Chocolatier!

    January 6, 2014 /

    Brussels wears its chocolate heritage like a badge of honour, and this image captures that sense of refinement and indulgence with a quietly cinematic touch. The composition is cleverly split between the interior glow of the shop and the poised figure outside. The chocolatier, dressed in an understated but impeccably tailored suit, stands just beyond the threshold, his profile framed by the shop’s edge. The counterpoint to his form is the rich, inviting display of chocolates, boxes, and ribboned confections bathed in warm light inside. This juxtaposition — cool tones on the left, warm tones on the right — creates both visual and thematic tension: the disciplined elegance of the…

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    Andrea Monti

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    What lasts after a party…

    April 25, 2013

    Late for Lunch

    March 26, 2014

    5 Frames with various cameras – Ferrari On The Road(s)

    February 22, 2025
  • Colour,  Daily photo,  Landscape,  Winter

    Through the Fog

    January 5, 2014 /

    The scene presented itself with no warning — one of those rare occasions where nature performs and the only real challenge is not missing the moment. I was walking through the hills when the mist thickened just enough to conceal and reveal in equal measure. What compelled me to stop wasn’t the tree, nor the fog, but the tension introduced by the artificial red plastic line cutting across the landscape — mundane, even ugly, yet unavoidably dominant in the composition. Framing this shot required restraint. Too wide, and the mood would dissipate. Too tight, and the context would vanish. The key lay in placing the tree just off-centre, allowing the…

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    Andrea Monti

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    PizzaPizza

    January 12, 2013

    A

    March 30, 2014

    The Pulse of Passion: A Story Told in Red

    August 9, 2018
  • Colour,  Daily photo,  Visual,  Winter

    Blob

    January 4, 2014 /

    I definitely have a thing for fountains…

    Read More
    Andrea Monti

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    So what?

    April 9, 2013

    Pensive

    November 28, 2014

    In the backstage

    May 10, 2013
  • Colour,  Daily photo,  Landscape,  Winter

    Welcome in the Twilight Zone

    January 3, 2014 /

    I wasn’t sure whether I was just coming down or entering into the Twilight Zone…

    Read More
    Andrea Monti

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    A Sad Cat in a Neko Cafè

    August 5, 2018

    Longtime Abandoned

    May 30, 2014

    When the day is gone

    April 4, 2013
  • B&W,  Beach&Shores,  Daily photo,  Gear,  Photography,  Winter

    The Hasselblad Way

    January 2, 2014 /

      As the readers of this blog know, I seldom talk about gear because since the very first post on this blog I made a point of stay focused on (shooting) pictures instead of musing about pointless technicalities such as Camera A vs Camera B ISO performance, Lens X vs Lens Y sharpness, APS-C vs Full Frame and so on, but today I do an exception because of an old Hasselbld 500 C/M that I have been given to try (and that probably will buy.) There is only one way to shoot with a Hasselblad: following its rule. The film has to be loaded in a certain way, the magazine…

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    Andrea Monti

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    Hammer and Sickle

    April 27, 2015

    Portrait of Keyboard Player

    May 18, 2014

    The sentinel…

    March 8, 2013
  • Colour,  Daily photo,  London,  Visual,  Winter

    London Panning

    December 30, 2013 /

    Pure Luck. Sometimes happens.

    Read More
    Andrea Monti

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    Santino’s Photo& Video at Broadway

    August 7, 2014

    The Alchoolist’s garbage

    March 5, 2013

    Guess who’s happier?

    May 27, 2013
  • Bottles&Cups,  Bruxelles,  Colour,  Daily photo,  People,  Restaurants&Bar,  Winter

    Behind the Beer

    December 26, 2013 /

    Behind the beer’s sockets, a barman discretely fulfills the order placed by his clients.

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    Andrea Monti

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    Portrait of a Lawyer

    October 5, 2013

    A creative approach to zone focusing with superfast manual lenses and mirrorless cameras in street photography

    September 28, 2024

    Histoire d’O

    November 11, 2014
  • Colour,  Daily photo,  London,  Street Markets,  Winter

    Christmas Time at Covent Garden

    December 25, 2013 /

    I caught this moment at Covent Garden during the run-up to Christmas—a place already soaked in atmosphere, now further steeped in the low murmur of seasonal anticipation. The light was dimming, not quite golden hour, but soft enough to let the scene breathe. Shot with the Leica M9, the CCD sensor rendered the colours with that particular tonal grit that makes digital files feel almost filmic. You can sense the density of the blacks without them ever falling into shadow-mud. What first caught my eye was the woman in the red coat. Not just the brightness of the garment—which naturally draws the eye—but the posture, the precise angle of the…

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    Andrea Monti

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    A Lost Towel

    July 3, 2013

    Iron Gate

    May 2, 2013

    Glancing Books

    November 12, 2015
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