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Andrea Monti

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  • 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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    DSLR-like…?

    March 21, 2025

    Do Not Touch

    June 5, 2013

    A Modern Nazca?

    December 4, 2014
  • 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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    Fujifilm X-Pro 2: Does It Worth It? (Lost In Via Del Corso)

    January 16, 2016

    As Deep As The Ocean

    April 15, 2016

    Do Not Touch

    June 5, 2013
  • 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 Chess Players

    October 10, 2013

    The Crew’s Rest

    July 20, 2014

    Daniele Silvestri – Live@Cinema teatro Massimo – Pescara

    March 21, 2016
  • 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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    Italy, Landscape Photography and the Law – Part Two

    February 23, 2014

    Next Time, Maybe…

    January 12, 2014

    Life Within the Post Office

    November 24, 2014
  • 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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    My camera’s early test shots

    December 20, 2012

    Strategy

    September 20, 2018

    An inconvenient way to spend time.

    March 15, 2013
  • 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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    A Skateboarder

    November 23, 2021

    When Tilted Photos Work

    December 18, 2019

    Stairway to nothing

    September 18, 2013
  • Cars&Bikes,  Colour,  Daily photo,  Rome,  Winter

    A Blue Vespa

    November 3, 2014 /

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    Andrea Monti

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    Leaving The Actor’s Studio

    January 14, 2014

    Floating Flower

    May 19, 2015

    Quality Check. Try Before You Buy

    April 10, 2014
  • B&W,  Daily photo,  Visual,  Winter

    Ramping Up

    September 16, 2014 /

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    Andrea Monti

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    Shooting Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA)-like Events

    August 15, 2024

    The Naughty Customer’s Place

    September 28, 2013

    Coffee at Caffè Nero

    July 16, 2023
  • B&W,  Daily photo,  Past&Relics,  Winter

    Food For Thought

    September 14, 2014 /

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    Andrea Monti

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    Get Ready for The Duty

    July 13, 2013

    An attempt at DSLR-made film digitization

    January 14, 2023

    Red Moon at the end of August

    September 1, 2023
  • Colour,  Daily photo,  Past&Relics,  Winter

    A Rusted Window

    September 11, 2014 /

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    Andrea Monti

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    Kristina Miller live@Teatro Marrucino

    February 21, 2022

    A Quiet Evening

    June 26, 2013

    Lost in mumbling

    September 22, 2013
  • Colour,  Daily photo,  Landscape,  Winter

    The Chicken

    September 10, 2014 /

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    Andrea Monti

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    An interesting reading

    May 13, 2013

    The Quest for Belgian Chocolate…

    April 11, 2017

    Billiard On The Field

    November 2, 2014
  • 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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    Fast Roping

    October 21, 2021

    Saturday Night’s Ice Cream

    August 19, 2013

    Just a soccer field… Part 3

    February 5, 2014
  • Colour,  Daily photo,  Social Control,  Winter

    On Air

    July 22, 2014 /

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    Andrea Monti

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    Pentacon 50/1.8 and Nikon Z5 – An Empirical Field Test

    January 18, 2026

    Alive Or Not?

    February 16, 2013

    Cognitive Dissonance

    December 5, 2025
  • 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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    A Spanish Long Jumper

    September 11, 2022

    A ghostly bystander

    September 21, 2013

    Urgent Calls Only

    May 15, 2017
  • Colour,  Daily photo,  Milan,  People,  Winter

    Zebra Crossing, Again…

    June 22, 2014 /

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    Andrea Monti

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    Through the Fog

    January 5, 2014

    A Lamp in an Old Teather

    March 8, 2016

    Where Do I Go From Here?

    October 13, 2016
  • 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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    Watching the Eiffel Tower

    October 14, 2013

    For Sale

    May 5, 2014

    Night Serenade

    September 12, 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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    Saturday Night Fight Fever

    October 19, 2025

    Questioning the Referee

    October 8, 2023

    A solitary journey

    December 24, 2012
  • 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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    A Shooter

    December 8, 2017

    Quis Custodiet…

    January 26, 2013

    Zeiss ZM Biogon 35/2 and Nikon Z5. An Empirical Field Test

    January 12, 2026
  • 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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    Stylemaster

    August 22, 2014

    How Privacy Hysteria Killed Street-Photography

    October 22, 2023

    Get Ready, Set, Go

    February 2, 2022
  • 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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    A Little Of Thailand In Rome

    August 3, 2013

    As Deep As The Ocean

    April 15, 2016

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

    June 5, 2024
  • 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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    The Ferrania Film Series – Episode 1 – Ferrania Orto shot on October/November 2023

    August 7, 2024

    Inside The Palace of Power

    September 17, 2015

    Snorkeling

    August 24, 2014
  • 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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    Denegata Justitia

    March 2, 2020

    The Last Barrell

    December 10, 2015

    Hanging Heart at via Olmetto

    March 31, 2014
  • Colour,  Daily photo,  Docks,  Street Markets,  Winter

    Late for Lunch

    March 26, 2014 /

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    Andrea Monti

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    A few test shots with an MC Cosinon T200/4

    January 14, 2024

    @Rome Maker Faire – 2

    October 10, 2014

    The Businessman…

    February 9, 2013
  • Bruxelles,  Colour,  Daily photo,  People,  Winter

    Early Leave at Bruxelles-Midi

    March 23, 2014 /

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    Inside the Nazario Sauro

    August 10, 2014

    The Penguin’s Feeder

    July 25, 2014

    Same Seats, Different Lifes

    April 14, 2014
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