Andrea Monti

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  • Colour,  Daily photo,  Downtown,  Nagasaki,  Osaka,  Photography,  Streets&Squares,  Thoughts,  Tokyo,  Travels,  Yokohama

    Why You Should Only Shoot in Your Backyard (or ‘The Art of Belonging’)

    December 19, 2024 /

    What do these pictures have in common (apart from having been taken in various places in Japan)? No, they don’t have the same look and feel, composition or use of light, nor they convey a particular meaning. What they have in common is that they’re just dull and boring —meaningless, indeed. This picture of the Yokohama’s Chinatown Dragon is hardly different than the others available on the Internet. Initially published on 35mmc.com It shares a similar fate with this one, taken last Mid November in Osaka, and, as Google Lens mercylessly shows, with this one, shot in Omura, near Nagasaki. One can hardly say that this is a never-seen-before view of Tokyo’s Kyu-Shiba-rikyū Gardens, or of…

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    Andrea Monti

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    The Wild Bunch

    October 1, 2013

    Late Afternoon Shopping

    March 1, 2014

    Life is a bitch

    May 22, 2013
  • B&W,  Boston,  Buildings,  Daily photo,  Docks,  Downtown,  Parks,  Streets&Squares,  Summer,  Travels

    From Waltham to Boston

    August 4, 2023 /

    ‘From Waltham to Boston’, an offshoot of a bigger project on documenting Boston’s pulse, is now available on Amazon as a Kindle e-book.

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    Andrea Monti

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    Red Moon at the end of August

    September 1, 2023

    High Heels Ghost

    August 20, 2013

    Street Of New York… Possibly

    March 21, 2017
  • Boston,  Cars&Bikes,  Colour,  Daily photo,  Downtown,  Summer

    A Ferrari 812 GTS in Boston

    July 14, 2023 /

    Amid the urban thrum of a bustling boulevard in Boston, a Ferrari 812 GTS rests with theatrical poise, like a tenor waiting for the curtain to rise. Its rosso corsa bodywork catches the sun like a blade, slicing through the cluttered backdrop of imitation, of diluted Italian flair printed onto shirts, menus, slogans. But here—here is the real thing. This image captures more than automotive power. It embodies the burden and brilliance of authenticity in a world obsessed with mimicry. The Ferrari’s uncompromising lines, forged in Maranello, don’t shout. They assert. In contrast to the busy street and distracted passers-by, the car is still, composed, sovereign. It doesn’t need motion…

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    Andrea Monti

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    Alone

    December 31, 2017

    Relax At The Rapallo’s Marina

    August 2, 2014

    The Expired Film Series – Episode 5 – Kodak Tri X 400 – September 2015 shot in Sept. 2023

    May 8, 2024
  • Boston,  Colour,  Daily photo,  Downtown,  Street Markets,  Summer

    A Cornhole Board – Independence Day Edition

    July 8, 2023 /

    I took this photograph in Boston on July 4th, and for me, it captures a small but telling fragment of the day’s celebrations. No fireworks, no parade—just a simple cornhole board dressed in the American flag, surrounded by scattered red and blue beanbags on a sunlit brick pavement. It’s an image that speaks to the quieter, more tactile traditions that sit alongside the grand spectacle. Compositionally, I let the board occupy the upper right of the frame, its diagonal placement adding a sense of movement and inviting the viewer’s eye from the legs toward the target hole. The wooden box in the foreground balances the frame and anchors the bottom…

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    Andrea Monti

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    Perfect Strangers

    April 5, 2014

    Under the Arc of the Seine

    June 9, 2015

    The Last Barrell

    December 10, 2015
  • Bruxelles,  Colour,  Daily photo,  Downtown,  Jewelry,  Winter

    Floating

    February 5, 2023 /

    This image was born out of a fascination with stillness in the midst of implied movement. The mannequin — suspended, curled, caught in an almost foetal position — seems to drift within a capsule that looks as though it could be orbiting somewhere far beyond Earth. The large, circular light behind it could be a porthole, a hatch, or simply a stage light; its blinding white obscures what might be beyond, giving the scene a surreal, detached quality. Technically, the biggest challenge was exposure. The extreme contrast between the brilliant backlight and the darker figure risked losing detail on both ends. I chose to protect the highlights, letting the shadows…

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    Andrea Monti

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    Is This Smoke?

    August 15, 2013

    The Violinist

    July 1, 2015

    Romeo’s Hideout

    December 16, 2015
  • B&W,  Daily photo,  Downtown,  Gear,  Stockholm,  Summer

    Another attempt at DLSR film scanning

    January 21, 2023 /

    Still trying.I digitised the negative with a Pentax K-1 and the FA 100 2.8 Macro lens using the JJC clone of Nikon ES-2. Postproduction is done in Pixelmator Pro. I used a Nikon 35TI and a Kodak BW400CN to take the original photo. Strangely enough, the JJC does not allow a 1:1 ratio with the Micro Nikkor 60 2.8.The instructions advise to mount the 62mm to 52mm step-down ring, the #2 52mm barrel-shaped tube and finally the film holder. These instructions are clearly wrong, as it is not possible to get 1:1 magnification with this setup.So I removed the tube and mounted the film carrier directly on the 62mm to…

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    Andrea Monti

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    Message Check Before Breakfast

    December 12, 2014

    Final Arrangements Before the Hearing

    April 19, 2015

    Staying Behind

    November 28, 2013
  • Colour,  Daily photo,  Downtown,  Milan,  Winter

    Technogym Milan@Night

    April 3, 2022 /

    I photographed this storefront in Milan after dark, intrigued by the way its illuminated windows cut through the night. The architecture itself is not the subject so much as the grid of glowing rectangles, each acting like a screen against the blackness of the street. The strong yellow framing lines draw the eye, repeating rhythmically across the facade, while the deep shadows surrounding them emphasise their intensity. Compositionally, I chose a wide perspective to capture the full stretch of the facade. This decision places emphasis on repetition and geometry rather than on any single detail. The asymmetry of the right side, where a bright advertisement interrupts the rhythm, creates a…

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    Andrea Monti

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    The Unintended March

    January 13, 2013

    Moon, hand-held

    April 30, 2021

    Floating

    February 5, 2023
  • Colour,  Daily photo,  Downtown,  Observer Bias,  PhotoCritics,  Rome,  Winter

    Light as Meaning Shifter

    December 11, 2019 /

    The original idea behind this picture was to match the emptiness of the shop with the facelessness of the mannequin posing as a store clerk, to convey a general feeling of depersonalization. Unfortunately, the big lightblot represented by the poster close to the mannequin catches the observer’s attention and reduce the effectiveness of the composition. Instead of connecting the mannequin with the internal part of the store thus making sense of the whole picture, the eye just “sees” an ad poster.

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    Andrea Monti

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    Which Part of “No Smoking” Got You Lost?

    June 21, 2015

    Lotus Tweak

    July 31, 2015

    Mirror

    January 17, 2013
  • Autumn,  Colour,  Daily photo,  Downtown,  People,  Restaurants&Bar,  Rome

    Beer or Spritz?

    November 1, 2019 /

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    Andrea Monti

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    Boat Maintenance At Genova’s Porto Antico

    July 30, 2014

    @ Mediterrean Beach Games 2015 – Italian Beach Soccer Team (and a primer on sport-photography, part 4)

    October 3, 2015

    Fisherman’s Fatigues

    December 19, 2022
  • Autumn,  Colour,  Daily photo,  Downtown,  Rome

    Comarketing

    October 10, 2019 /

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    Andrea Monti

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    Just A Bird

    July 1, 2014

    Waiting for the Shinkansen – 1

    June 25, 2017

    A Cello Player

    April 24, 2017
  • Autumn,  Colour,  Daily photo,  Downtown,  Rome

    What’s the Time?

    October 8, 2019 /

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    Andrea Monti

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    Street Compass Rose

    September 25, 2013

    An Old Portable Camera

    October 14, 2014

    A party that shall never come

    May 9, 2013
  • Autumn,  Colour,  Daily photo,  Downtown,  Rome,  Streets&Squares

    Garbage As Usual – Pantheon’s Nearby

    October 4, 2019 /

    Rome has an unrivalled way of holding beauty and decay in the same frame, and this street is no exception. The cobblestones, slick from a recent rain, mirror the ochre façades and Renaissance windows in a way that almost disguises the litter piled quietly along the curb. Almost. A man in a crisp shirt walks down the centre, back straight, seemingly immune to the refuse that flanks his path. It’s not that he doesn’t see it—it’s that he’s learned to live with it, as many Romans have. On the right, another figure leans against a doorway, absorbed in his phone, framed by stacked crates and plastic bags. Life continues unbothered.…

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    Andrea Monti

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    The Lost Lock

    June 12, 2014

    Disagreement

    December 29, 2012

    The Modern Preacher

    November 14, 2016
  • Cities,  Colour,  Daily photo,  Downtown,  Summer,  Tokyo

    Shin Pepper@Harajuku

    June 4, 2018 /

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    Andrea Monti

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    The Real-Life Lens Test Series – Episode 1: Viltrox XF 56/1,4 AF

    June 6, 2024

    Before The Match

    October 20, 2014

    She Died Alone

    February 15, 2022
  • B&W,  Daily photo,  Downtown,  Hamburg,  Lines,  Spring

    Das Feuerwehr

    April 17, 2018 /

    Stark light and harsh shadow are unforgiving companions. I leaned into both for this frame, shooting handheld at night on cobblestone soaked in sodium glow. The word FEUERWEHR — fire brigade — is scrawled vertically in bold white across the pavement, its urgency subdued by silence and stone. I chose to skew the perspective intentionally, aligning the top-right vanishing point with the guardrail and letting the painted letters lead the eye back into the void. There’s no subject in the conventional sense — no figure, no action. Just trace elements of human systems and warnings against an absence. Technically, this is an image pulled from constraint. Low light meant pushing…

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    Andrea Monti

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    Full Moon

    May 9, 2017

    Asimo’s Ancestor@Tsukuba World1985 Expo

    June 30, 2018

    Lost In Barcelona’s Beauty

    June 13, 2014
  • Colour,  Daily photo,  Downtown,  Hamburg,  Spring

    Light Dance in Hamburg

    April 6, 2018 /

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    Andrea Monti

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    On Composition. Or: the eye sees what the mind is prepared to comprehend

    September 11, 2023

    Nightlife

    June 20, 2013

    Trespassed

    May 3, 2015
  • Bruxelles,  Colour,  Daily photo,  Downtown,  People,  Winter

    We Are All Made of Stars

    February 28, 2018 /

    The street is slick with rain, fenced for works in progress, cluttered with signs and barriers. Yet above it all, the stars have returned — bright, geometric, electric — heralding the slow, luminous arrival of Christmas in Brussels. A lone figure walks toward the camera, wrapped in a scarf and his own thoughts. He is grounded, ordinary, human. But above him, a constellation of neon dreams stretches deep into the vanishing point, inviting passersby to look up, to believe, even if just for a moment. This photograph captures the paradox of the urban winter: cold, messy, fractured — and yet luminous with potential. The construction fences are still up, the…

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    Andrea Monti

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    A Fujifilm X-E1 Annoyance

    April 15, 2014

    Denegata Justitia

    March 2, 2020

    Forgotten Bike In A Forgotten House

    April 3, 2013
  • B&W,  Buildings,  Daily photo,  Downtown,  Milan

    Renovating Milan

    November 18, 2017 /

    Milan, November 2017. A construction site—not the kind that demands attention, but the quiet kind that hides behind fabric and scaffolding. I took this photo walking past it for the third or fourth time. What stopped me wasn’t the building itself, but its ghost. Behind the mesh screen, the silhouette of the old façade still lingered, like a memory bleeding through fabric. Chimneys, outlines, the suggestion of windows. The city behind the curtain. At the bottom, the standard construction notice: printed bureaucracy stapled to metal, a reminder that change is always sanctioned, scheduled, structured. But the rest of the image resists clarity. Straight lines waver, verticals drift. Even the fence…

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    Andrea Monti

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    A Master Luthier in his lab…

    May 14, 2013

    Damned Pidgeons…

    October 8, 2017

    So Long, and Thank You for the Fish

    January 26, 2022
  • Colour,  Daily photo,  Downtown,  Summer,  Venice,  Visual

    Red Cross

    October 26, 2017 /

    Some photographs are taken instinctively, almost without the usual premeditation that guides my framing. This one emerged from a walk at night, when the glow of an illuminated red circle caught my eye—a signal cutting through the darkness. At its centre, a cross of tiny LEDs blinked rhythmically, part medical icon, part abstract light sculpture. Framing it was straightforward: the dark surroundings worked like a natural vignette, pushing the viewer’s gaze towards the centre. I positioned myself to keep the circle symmetrical within the frame, knowing that the composition’s strength would lie in its stark simplicity. Technically, this was a delicate balance. Shooting at night with such a bright light…

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    Andrea Monti

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    Tattoos in Barcelona

    August 18, 2014

    Footprints

    March 27, 2021

    Business people in Rome

    February 23, 2013
  • Autumn,  Colour,  Daily photo,  Downtown,  Milan

    Late Evening Break In Piazza Dante

    October 21, 2017 /

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    Andrea Monti

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    Now You See It…Street Juggler at a Red Light in Barcelona

    June 16, 2014

    Red Fan

    June 14, 2022

    An experiment with Dall-E, ChatGPT and a Nissan S8

    November 4, 2023
  • Bruxelles,  Colour,  Daily photo,  Downtown,  Spring

    Intelligence Contest

    April 15, 2017 /

    A pane of glass separates two worlds. On one side, the hyper-stylised gaze of a model — digital, sculpted, aloof. His stare pierces outward from an ad inside a hair salon, promising precision, control, curated masculinity at €21. Behind the glossy veneer, real people go about their routines, dwarfed by the giant printed face that symbolises a synthetic ideal. On the other side, a cluster of balloons—soft, round, unformed—calls out with its own clumsy presence. Unintended perhaps, but visually evocative, the column of latex orbs resembles a puppet or caricature. In their simplicity, they reflect something the model cannot: humanity, imperfection, absurdity. The composition turns into theatre. A confrontation of…

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    Andrea Monti

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    Wrecked Ship

    November 23, 2013

    Emanuele Cavallucci. The New Italian Pro Boxing Welterweight Champion

    March 9, 2019

    Early Morning’s Cleanup

    July 21, 2013
  • Bruxelles,  Colour,  Daily photo,  Downtown,  Patisserie,  Spring

    The Quest for Belgian Chocolate…

    April 11, 2017 /

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    Andrea Monti

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    On Tips’n Tricks to ‘take you photos to the next level’

    May 29, 2025

    Portrait of a Bailaor

    November 19, 2013

    Portrait of a Master luthier

    October 26, 2013
  • Colour,  Daily photo,  Downtown,  Winter

    Street Of New York… Possibly

    March 21, 2017 /

    The image was taken in Italy. But remove the signage, blur the language on the air conditioning units, and this could just as easily be Queens or Brooklyn — any back alley where heat pumps hum above cracked asphalt and fading stucco. That universality was the point. Place becomes anonymous when its elements are global. I composed it as a frame within a frame — the corridor of walls leading the eye to the vanishing point, while the pipes, units, and rust act as punctuation marks. The textures do the talking: peeling paint, patched cement, and the industrial clutter that cities never clean up because no one looks down these…

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    Andrea Monti

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    Portrait of a Fin Swimmer

    June 5, 2021

    Caged?

    June 6, 2014

    Is This Photo Illegal?

    March 20, 2014
  • B&W,  Daily photo,  Doors&Windows,  Downtown,  Garages&Labs,  Lines,  Rome,  Spring

    Frames for Sale at Via Margutta

    May 2, 2016 /

    I was walking along Via Margutta when the geometry in this shop window stopped me cold. Two empty frames leaned against the glass, one upright, the other tilted sharply as though it had slipped out of formation. Behind them, more frames receded into the dim interior, creating an optical echo — rectangles within rectangles, stretching away into the dark. I shot it in black and white film, embracing the grain and high contrast that the low light demanded. The texture is almost intrusive, but it adds a grit that feels appropriate for a street scene late in the evening. Exposure was tricky: I wanted to preserve the fluorescent highlights inside…

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    Andrea Monti

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    A Portrait on the Nasdaq Building

    January 18, 2014

    Elishéva live@Faneuil Hall

    July 8, 2023

    Americana Skating – Italian National Championship 2019

    February 4, 2019
  • Colour,  Daily photo,  Downtown,  People,  Photography,  Rome,  Street Photography,  Winter

    The Watchman (Street-Photography Shortcuts)

    January 21, 2016 /

    As every thing under the sun, Street-Photography too has its own shortcuts: freaky street-portraits are one of those. It’s easy to have your pictures noticed when your subject is a 60-years old Brit-Punk, an implausible-color dressed man or whatever alike: these subjects do the work on your behalf and it is very hard to obtain such kind of picture AND conveying actual meaning. Personally I like photos that – alone or made meaningful by a title – can tell a story. This way I can try to (pretend to) make “unique” shots, that stand with dignity in front of the zillions of 500px/Instagram/Flickr’s  great images that are often perfect but…

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    Andrea Monti

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    Antonio Onorato

    August 20, 2016

    Fishing Shelter Under The Bridge

    September 4, 2014

    A Roller Coaster… A Kind Of

    April 3, 2014
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