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Andrea Monti

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  • 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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    The Expired Film Series – Episode 6 – Kodak Portra 400 – November 2016 shot in Sept. 2023

    June 5, 2024

    Right before the gig

    September 14, 2018

    Reflexes

    December 30, 2015
  • Colour,  Daily photo,  Social Control,  Winter

    On Air

    July 22, 2014 /

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    Andrea Monti

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    Never Trust the Autofocus (not only) in Street-Photography

    July 20, 2013

    Pentax SMC-A 50/1,7 – Nikkor 50/1,4 – Summicron 50/2

    February 9, 2021

    A Gull, Posing

    June 17, 2022
  • 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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    The Arson

    February 21, 2014

    Are you Sure?

    July 9, 2015

    Carl Zeiss T* 50 1,5 Sonnar and EOS EF-M 18-55

    August 4, 2013
  • Colour,  Daily photo,  Milan,  People,  Winter

    Zebra Crossing, Again…

    June 22, 2014 /

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    Andrea Monti

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    Black Cat

    October 31, 2021

    The Flame is Still Burning…

    June 23, 2018

    The First Picture of the Year

    January 5, 2019
  • 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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    Street Of New York… Possibly

    March 21, 2017

    Luggages

    April 20, 2019

    Yellow

    December 15, 2014
  • 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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    5 Frames from our Tragic Past Shot with an iPhone 14 Pro Max

    April 4, 2025

    Becoming a Human Tripod

    January 9, 2017

    Kudos to Ricoh

    February 8, 2013
  • 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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    Ashtray

    February 12, 2017

    Shadow On The Wall

    August 30, 2015

    Duel Inside The Cage

    November 20, 2014
  • Bruxelles,  Colour,  Daily photo,  People,  Winter

    Skating on Avenue Louise

    April 1, 2014 /

      The architecture of Avenue Louise is built to impress — symmetrical, imposing, wrapped in glass and concrete. It speaks the language of power, efficiency, and institutional gravitas. Yet here, cutting across the uniformity of its grid, a lone skateboarder defies gravity and symmetry alike. In mid-air, suspended between takeoff and landing, the young skater rewrites the function of space. This plaza wasn’t designed for movement like his — spontaneous, raw, unruly — yet it hosts it with unexpected grace. The stark concrete façade becomes a backdrop, not a boundary. This is the city as canvas, the act of skating as resistance and reinterpretation. While others walk briskly from meeting…

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    Andrea Monti

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    Don’t They Drink Tea, Instead?

    December 27, 2016

    All Mobiles But One Book

    June 24, 2017

    A Bookstore in the Gallery

    December 22, 2013
  • Colour,  Daily photo,  Doors&Windows,  Milan,  Winter

    Hanging Heart at via Olmetto

    March 31, 2014 /

    Taken in Milan, this photograph is built around a single point of chromatic and emotional focus — a small, glossy red heart suspended from the centre of an ornate iron grille. The restrained colour palette of the stone façade and dark metalwork works to its advantage, ensuring the heart becomes a magnetic anchor for the viewer’s gaze. The pattern of the wrought iron, a chain of interlocking circles bisected by vertical bars, lends the image symmetry and rhythm, subtly broken by the heart’s irregular organic shape. The composition is tightly framed, allowing no distraction from the relationship between object and setting. The verticals of the grille are aligned with precision,…

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    Andrea Monti

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    The Doorman

    September 1, 2013

    To Do or To Own? (or the Photographer’s Dilemma)

    March 2, 2025

    Bulbs

    January 12, 2015
  • B&W,  Daily photo,  Doors&Windows,  Milan,  Winter

    A

    March 30, 2014 /

    Some photographs are built on complexity — overlapping narratives, layered subjects, visual chaos distilled into coherence. This one is built on the opposite: a single, dominant letter and the deliberate restraint of elements. The capital “A” scrawled across the double wooden doors becomes both subject and statement. Whether an anarchist mark, an initial, or just a passing act of vandalism, it punctuates the otherwise rigid, formal architecture. The geometry of the building — rectangular panels, horizontal mouldings, the granite base — forms a rigid grid, and into this grid the bicycle is quietly inserted, its own triangles and curves breaking the dominance of the rectangles without challenging their order. Technically,…

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    Andrea Monti

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    Yes, We…Can

    May 16, 2014

    A Fix for the Wikipedia Photos’ Copyright Scams?

    December 19, 2020

    An Essay on Composition

    February 14, 2021
  • Bruxelles,  Colour,  Daily photo,  Social Control,  Winter

    Off-Duty Eurocrats in Bruxelles

    March 28, 2014 /

    Late afternoon outside the European Parliament is a curious time. The intensity of the day’s debates, meetings, and bureaucratic rituals evaporates into the chill air, leaving behind something more recognisably human. I caught this scene as the sun was sinking, the light flattening into that pale, slightly diffused wash Brussels often wears in winter. I framed the shot to emphasise the contrast between the rigid geometry of the architecture and the small figure of the man stepping into the foreground. The curved glass façade on the right dominates, its repeating elements pulling the eye deeper into the image. The building almost seems to lean forward, pressing its presence into the…

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    Andrea Monti

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    Creativity vs Originality

    March 11, 2024

    Behind a Shop Window in Oslo

    October 1, 2014

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

    February 22, 2025
  • Colour,  Daily photo,  Docks,  Street Markets,  Winter

    Late for Lunch

    March 26, 2014 /

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    A Lamp

    November 14, 2015

    The Eye

    April 25, 2014

    Between Sea and Sky

    February 12, 2015
  • Bruxelles,  Colour,  Daily photo,  People,  Winter

    Early Leave at Bruxelles-Midi

    March 23, 2014 /

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    Andrea Monti

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    The Straycat

    December 3, 2013

    Guarding Democracy

    June 14, 2023

    Underground Security RA(T)P

    June 5, 2015
  • Colour,  Daily photo,  Milan,  People,  Streets&Squares,  Winter

    Walking Table in via Cornaggia

    March 22, 2014 /

    Via Cornaggia in Milan is not a place one usually associates with humour in photography, yet this image carries an almost surreal tone. A man strides down the cobblestone street, carrying a table on his shoulders, its legs pointing skyward like some awkward sculpture. His face is completely obscured, leaving only body language and context to speak for him. The everyday act of transporting furniture becomes, in this frame, an absurd visual gesture. The narrow perspective of the street enhances the composition. The converging lines of the walls and cobbled path guide the eye directly to the man, amplifying his centrality within the scene. The geometry of the table mirrors…

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    Andrea Monti

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    Beach in black

    January 5, 2013

    Downtown Pulse

    October 17, 2014

    An Asian Lion Guarding an Italian Town – One Shot Story

    August 27, 2025
  • Colour,  Daily photo,  People,  Street Photography,  Winter

    Is This Photo Illegal?

    March 20, 2014 /

    Yes, if it were taken in Hungary. Against the European Convention of Human Rights, Hungary passed a law that by next March 15 will require any photographer shooting in public space to obtain a signed “model release form”. This provision will be bashed by either the EU Court of Justice or the European Court of Human Rights (for the very same reasons I explained here), but it will take time and – first of all – a photographer that sacrifices himself on the altar of freedom.  

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    Andrea Monti

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    Silver Pottery

    November 4, 2014

    No Tablet, No Problem

    April 12, 2013

    The Heart Of Giulietta

    October 30, 2014
  • Colour,  Daily photo,  Paris,  People,  Restaurants&Bar,  Winter

    Relaxed Call at Boulevard du Palais

    March 19, 2014 /

    Paris lends itself so well to moments of quiet theatre, and this image captures one of those understated urban vignettes — a waiter leaning against a doorway, mid-call, somewhere between duty and a fleeting pause. The scene’s composition is clean and deliberate. The vertical symmetry of the architecture — the heavy wrought-iron window on the left, the dark panelled doors on the right — creates a structured backdrop that frames the human subject without overpowering him. The soft patina of the stone façade carries a sense of history, its muted tones setting off the crisp whites of the waiter’s apron and shirt. His black vest and bow tie anchor him…

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    Andrea Monti

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    Watch My Back

    January 15, 2013

    Hanging Bottle

    October 11, 2014

    Shade of Berlin

    April 23, 2013
  • Colour,  Daily photo,  Paris,  Social Control,  Winter

    Trust Us, We Care About You

    March 18, 2014 /

    This is a close-up of a banner hanging from the Prefecture de police, Paris, Rue de la citè. I don’t know why, but every time I hear a public power saying that he cares about me I feel a bit worried…                   — This is the Google Map link, currently displaying the complete image, and here is a screen capture, just in case:

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    Andrea Monti

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    Denegata Justitia

    March 2, 2020

    A Fence

    November 6, 2014

    The Expired Film Series – Episode 7 – Kodak Portra 160 – June 2015 shot in Oct. 2023

    January 11, 2024
  • Colour,  Daily photo,  People,  Rome,  Winter

    Still Standing

    March 15, 2014 /

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    Andrea Monti

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    The sentinel…

    March 8, 2013

    The Way Out

    October 20, 2013

    Wave Riders

    September 20, 2013
  • Colour,  Daily photo,  People,  Rome,  Winter

    Zebra Crossing

    March 14, 2014 /

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    Andrea Monti

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    Drying Clothes

    March 9, 2021

    Stylemaster

    August 22, 2014

    On the Range

    December 6, 2015
  • Colour,  Daily photo,  People,  Rome,  Winter

    Street Food in Via Salaria

    March 13, 2014 /

    A Chestnut Maker, making everything ready for another day of hard work.

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    Andrea Monti

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    A Pensive Nun

    December 14, 2016

    DSLR film scanning: episode three

    January 24, 2023

    The Expired Film Series – Episode 6 – Kodak Portra 400 – November 2016 shot in Sept. 2023

    June 5, 2024
  • Colour,  Court,  Daily photo,  Reportage,  Rome,  Winter

    A Toilet of the Court of Rome

    March 11, 2014 /

    This image wasn’t taken to shock, or to moralise. It was taken to document—to observe the banal degradation of a public space that ought to represent dignity, order, and functionality. The Court of Rome is not some anonymous bureaucratic annex. It’s an institution, a symbol of authority. And this—this corner of neglect, dirt, and rust—is part of its daily mise en scène. The frame is unadorned. The composition is split by a hard vertical: clean white tiles with a wall-mounted sink on the right, and a long, filth-streaked heating unit under sealed windows on the left. It’s the juxtaposition that struck me—two realities in the same room. One part designed…

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    Andrea Monti

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    Open Window

    February 4, 2015

    Denegata Justitia

    March 2, 2020

    Inside The Palace of Power

    September 17, 2015
  • Colour,  Daily photo,  Visual,  Winter

    Stairway to Nothing

    March 9, 2014 /

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    Andrea Monti

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    Copyright Foto AFP / Issouf Sanogo - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

    A stupid quarrell

    April 7, 2013

    Hanging News

    June 18, 2013

    Next in line, please!

    October 31, 2013
  • Colour,  Daily photo,  Restaurants&Bar,  Winter

    Stand-up, Sugar!

    March 8, 2014 /

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    Andrea Monti

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    TKO

    May 8, 2019

    Between Sea and Sky

    February 12, 2015

    The Lost Garage

    July 8, 2013
  • B&W,  Daily photo,  Winter

    Shadows&Lights

    March 7, 2014 /

    A stone wall where the sun had cast two strong shadows of street lamps. The lamps themselves are absent from the frame; only their silhouettes remain, stretched and distorted across the grid of blocks. The geometry of the masonry intersects with the organic curves of the ironwork, turning a mundane architectural feature into an interplay of abstraction. Technically, the image rests on tonal contrast. The black-and-white treatment strips away distraction, reducing the composition to texture, line, and shadow. The exposure is precise: the stone retains detail without bleaching, while the shadows remain solid but not impenetrable. The vertical seam of the wall divides the frame, splitting the twin forms into…

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    Andrea Monti

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    Disagreement

    December 29, 2012

    Red Curtains

    August 28, 2014

    Nightlife

    June 20, 2013
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