Moistmaker@Piazza della Rotonda

I took this photograph at a crowded café terrace in the height of summer, when heat presses down on both locals and tourists. The focus is not on the crowd itself but on the industrial fan in the foreground, misting the air with a fine spray. Its utilitarian presence dominates the frame, turning into an unlikely protagonist against the backdrop of awnings, chatter, and bodies seeking shade.

Compositionally, I placed the fan off-centre but close enough that its metallic grid commands attention. The yellow canopies lead the eye deeper into the scene, pulling focus towards the throng of people blurred in the background. That separation between sharp foreground and hazy backdrop reinforces the contrast between machine and human. The faint mist dispersing into light adds an atmospheric veil, softening the harder lines of the composition.

Technically, exposure was a balancing act. The terrace was partly shaded, but the background was flooded with sunlight. I metered for the highlights to keep the whites in check while preserving texture in the fan’s metallic surface. Depth of field was kept shallow enough to isolate the fan but not so shallow that the crowd dissolved completely. The colours—the muted yellow of the awnings, the silvery grey of the fan, the scattered tones of the crowd—remain natural, giving the image a documentary honesty.

What interests me most is the irony: the fan is designed to disappear, to serve comfort without notice. Yet framed in this way, it becomes the subject, embodying the adaptation of public space to heat. The photograph captures not just a café scene, but a portrait of technology woven quietly into urban life.