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A videographer…
… or a human sundial?
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What a odd couple of bipedals…
told himself the seagull.
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A promenade
… in a forbidden place.
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Business people in Rome
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A moment of break…
I made this image at a street market in central Italy, just as the vendors were preparing for the day ahead. It was early, cold, and the air smelled of roasted chestnuts and diesel from delivery vans. These two stood silently, each holding a small cup—likely coffee—while surrounded by synthetic softness still wrapped in plastic. Quilts, towels, fleece. The kind of items whose colour is always a little too bright under cloudy skies. Technically, the shot is far from pristine. It’s handheld, slightly out of focus at the edges, and not particularly well exposed. But I’m not sorry. What it lacks in clinical sharpness it gains in truth. This wasn’t…
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Smoke is everywhere…
and is here to stay.
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No time for lunch at Piazza Fiume …
It was the shadow that pulled me in first—mine, cast sharply onto the boot of the car, creeping into the scene like an unwanted narrator. Midday sun can be harsh, unforgiving, but here it helped slice the moment cleanly into layers: man, car, street, façade. Rome, in its winter light, does this beautifully—sculpts with sun rather than bathing in it. The man was absorbed, cigarette in one hand, eyes squinting into the curbside distance. His posture wasn’t idle. It was tight, waiting. The shoulder bag pulled across his frame like a restraint. The frame itself is compressed—everything close, tight to the lens, from the Mercedes emblem to the man’s jacket…
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Waiting for the hearing
This frame came together in the sort of courtroom stillness that doesn’t need silence to be loud. Everyone in the picture has a role, but the image doesn’t tell you who’s who — and that’s the point. Decades ago, a robe or a tie might have done the job. Now, visual cues have flattened, and that ambiguity became the soul of this shot. None of the are defendants, though… Shot handheld with available light, the scene is dominated by the warm glow of the wood table, contrasting with the impersonal office light spilling from above. That warmth helps soften the harsh institutional lines, drawing the viewer’s eye toward the hands…
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Lunchtime
It’s cold, but for a while it is better stay outside. The light was sharp and low, the kind that cuts through the chill and gives everything a brief sense of warmth. The group gathered around the table, half in shadow, half in sunlight is a familiar Roman scene: conversation, coffee, and the kind of pause that feels both ordinary and essential.
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It’s always the right time
… to light a cigar.
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Alive Or Not?
It’s a fraction of a gesture—half a figure, half a scene, the rest left to suggestion. The photograph wasn’t staged; I caught it walking past a mirrored office entrance. A man stood statue-still in the morning light, the crisp shirt collar slightly rumpled, his cardigan misaligned, tie pulled just a bit too tight. And in his hand, a cigarette—not lit, not smoked, merely held. Suspended. That detail alone tilted the entire scene into ambiguity. Technically, the image relies heavily on contrast—natural, unforgiving light from the left collides with deep shadows on the right. The tonal division reinforces the emotional ambivalence. It’s clean, yes, but harsh. The edges of the shirt…
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The Ghost
There’s an almost cinematic eeriness to this image, as if the subject has just stepped out of one reality and into another. The woman, her red hair catching the muted afternoon light, stands mid-pavement with her back partially turned. Her black gloves, long coat, and still posture evoke a figure from another era — an apparition caught in a modern street. The muted colours of the cars and buildings behind her only serve to make her presence more striking. From a compositional standpoint, the frame is well balanced. The subject occupies the vertical centre-left, her figure breaking the dominant horizontals of the street and architecture. The crossing lines of the…
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A lighter
…left for somebody to come, or hidden by someone who just left?
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Multitasking
This frame is one of those candid catches where the absurd quietly sits inside the ordinary. Two men, mid-meal, are absorbed in their respective worlds: the one in the centre toggling between a phone call and a glass of wine, the other leaning forward in conversation. The table is cluttered with the civilised chaos of lunch — sparkling water, empty glasses awaiting purpose, a scattering of breadsticks. The composition is built almost like a play: the seated figures as protagonists, the window behind them acting as both set and light source. That window, however, is a double-edged sword. The strong backlight pushed the dynamic range to its limit, forcing me…
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The Businessman…
Restless, waiting for the last flight to come back home.
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Who Dares Wins
I took this photograph on a grey, wind-bitten afternoon when the sea felt restless and the light had flattened into steel. What caught my attention wasn’t the surf but the contradiction: a warning sign standing firm in the sand, and a man walking past it as if it didn’t exist. He held a turquoise umbrella, not open but swinging at his side — a quiet rebellion against both weather and authority. The tension between rule and gesture made the image. The sign, reading Attenzione – Pericolo. Divieto di attraversamento / Scavalcamento / Transito, is bureaucratic, absolute. Yet the man ignores it, tracing his own path along the forbidden shore. It…
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Impatience
In a hurry, while somebody else is late…
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Generations
Generation after generation, the passion for the photography always lasts.
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Waiting To Board
I found this scene along a neglected stretch of riverbank—nothing curated, nothing arranged. A broken chair, its straw seat long unravelled, faced a decaying boat tethered loosely to the shore. They looked like they belonged to each other, equally abandoned, equally patient. The title came instantly. Not poetic, just accurate: Waiting to Board. The composition rests on tension—foreground versus background, texture versus reflection. The rope cuts a diagonal across the frame, literally tying the objects together. The chair leans slightly left, softened by rot and time, while the boat points right, cracked paint peeling toward the water. Neither is in motion, yet the whole image feels held in anticipation. Technically,…
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Hanging
Leo Gullotta – Bartleby lo scrivano@Teatro Marrucino
An urgent phone call?
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An Abandoned Book…
When I came across this scene, it struck me immediately as a still-life already composed by chance. There, on the coarse, sun-warmed pavement of a dock, lay a copy of Il Marchese di Villemer, its painted cover portrait staring off to the right with aristocratic detachment. A torn scrap of red foil—perhaps once wrapping for a sweet—sat nearby, an almost absurd counterpoint to the book’s refined image. From a compositional standpoint, the photograph is anchored by the bold horizontal yellow line running across the frame. This not only divides the image but also provides a visual base upon which the book rests. The warm tones of the line complement the…
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Tough Enough
Winter light in Rome has a particular sharpness to it—crisp, but never cruel. I took this frame on one of those days when the air was cool enough to see your breath, yet the sun still carried the weight of the Mediterranean. The man in the foreground walked past with the easy stride of someone immune to the season. Sleeveless, tanned, a newspaper in hand—he looked more like August than January. The scene unfolded quickly. The scooter-lined curb, the idling bus, and the kiosk stacked high with papers gave the photograph its Roman DNA. The cluttered street corner made for a textured backdrop, but compositionally I placed him just off-centre,…
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Quis Custodiet…
I photographed these two men standing guard outside a government building, their uniforms marking the distinction between routine policing and ceremonial presence. The man on the left, in standard attire, leans casually, his stance relaxed. The man on the right, draped in a cape and holding a sword, maintains rigidity, his posture ceremonial, as though embodying an institution rather than an individual. Compositionally, I framed them against the imposing stone architecture, the vertical columns echoing the upright form of the ceremonial guard. The iron gate behind them adds depth and formality, while the shadows creeping into the arch contrast with the brightness of the façade. The pairing of the two…
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Killing Santa? Really?
This image came out of one of those moments when absurdity and bureaucracy collide so neatly you’d think it was staged. But it wasn’t. A plastic Santa Claus, mid-climb on a balcony railing, hangs over a military facility—camouflage netting, barred windows, and a glaring yellow sign that reads ZONA MILITARE – DIVIETO DI ACCESSO – SORVEGLIANZA ARMATA (Military Zone – No Access – Armed Surveillance). The juxtaposition is so stark, it borders on the surreal. I composed the frame tightly to maximise that tension. Everything sits on verticals: the iron bars, the camouflage mesh, the uniformity of the railing. Against this grid, Santa—soft, cartoonish, deliberately naive—becomes a kind of visual…
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The last waltz
Everything is ready for the last waltz. The Master of ceremony has just come. Let the celebration begins.
