Archive for April 2012
PAPER PEOPLE – portrayed in Rome
Today’s portfolio is a series on paper people looking out on Rome from posters and such.
It illustrates three current trends: street artists are increasingly photocopying artwork and pasting it on the walls rather than stencilling it in spray paint; Italy’s growing presence of foreign-born people; and of course Italians’ perennial and unending obsession with beauty.
Street art on Rome’s Via Flaminia.
Paper angels in Rome’s historic center.
Political posters on Rome’s Viale Somalia.
Posters written in Spanish for Rome’s increasing Latino population, Esquilino, Rome.
This enticing poster is written in a well-blended mix of Spanish, Italian and Roman spelling. Esquilino, Rome.
Most spanish posters appeal primarily to the many Ecuadorians and Peruvians (as well as of other origins) now living in Rome. Most announce disco parties, concerts, and soccer ‘futbol’ tournaments. Esquilino, Rome.
A lovely Jane Alexander looking out from a retro-style beer poster, Miscellanea pub and restaurant, Rome.
Sexy Moschino poster – actually looking straight at the building that houses Valentino’s atelier. Piazza di Spagna, Rome.
‘Buy these 200 – euro jeans! They’ll make you look as sexy as us.’ Near the Pantheon, Rome.
Sometimes – rarely – the pursuit of beauty can be culturally useful. Poster advertising a show on spain’s great artist salvador dali’. Via dei Fori Imperiali, Rome.
Did i mention italians’ obsession with beauty? Handsome priest (!) on the cover of a 2013 calendar by Piero Pazzi. Pantheon, Rome.
Photographs taken in springtime 2012, rome, italy.
Alessandro Ciapanna
STONY ROMANS – interactive statues
statues are not quite as passive and stony-eyed as we might like to think. not all of them. not in rome, anyway…
‘go to rome’, they told me back in africa, ‘you’re such a good-looking lion, you’ll get loads of modelling jobs, no problem.’ and look at me now…
is that hideous creature still sitting there staring at us? i don’t know darling, just to be safe, we should just keep pretending like we’re dead…
shouldn’t we perhaps be telling the authorities about all these ancient artifacts we just dug up? nah, just think how great they’ll look if we just plaster them into the wall!
hey boss, are these guys even allowed to land their balloon in piazza del popolo? look, there’s a cop over there, let’s keep out of this and not get involved
wait, you’re like a big-shot movie star, huh? that’s why you’re on that huge poster, huh? look, all i’ve got is these flowers, but i’d really, really like it if you’d…
what? it’s NOT raining. and me in my raincoat and… oh, great, now tourists are even taking pictures of me!
how i hate camera-wielding tourists! i’d really love to flip him the finger. now, if only i had my flip finger left…
why do i keep feeling like i’m being watched today? oh, there’s a guy pointing his camera at me, that’s why!
boys will be boys. or statues
boys will be boys. or predictable
excuse me, mister, um, caesar: could you please tell me which way it is to piazza venezia?
photographs taken springtime in rome’s center.
thanks for eyeing
alessandro
PLASTIC PEOPLE – in rome’s shop windows
some say real flesh-and-bones italians are handsome people. that’s just because they have not met the plastic ones. please allow me to introduce you…
yay! i just love the attention…
tough guy
hairy twins
looove your shades
perky
as soon as i find my wig i’m ready to go
oops, i forgot to wear my face
who needs a head when you’re wearing such pretty things?
ok, so i’m dumb. but at least my neck is thicker than yours
i hate it when my plastic hair gets in my plastic eyes
i’m cool. i like elvis
aw, man! it’s raining chains…
are you still there? yep – right behind you.
hey – why is that guy poking a camera in our faces? just look away and ignore him, he’ll tire soon…
wish they’d clean the glass – i’m allergic to dust
what? no, this is our natural color. really.
you really think i look like obama? oh, i am sooo flattered
don’t you think i just have the cutest nose?
but remember, all you plastic people out there: if you’re handsome and you know it, it’s a sin
in a country that counts the perennial quest for beauty among its national pastimes, it is perhaps to be expected that even mannequins would be movie-star good-looking.
pictures taken through shop windows in rome’s center in spring time.
alessandro ciapanna
BAMBOLA – rome’s doll hospital
squatriti is the name of a workshop in rome’s center. officially they restore artistic things, but locals refer to it as “l’ospedale delle bambole”, the doll hospital. judging by these ghastly photographs, a more apt nickname might well be the dolls’ morgue…
the main entrance to the shop is at 29 via di ripetta, but this window is on via del vantaggio, a side street. ask any passer-by, and they’ll tell you this window has not changed as far back as anyone can remember. decades, at least.
don’t worry if these pictures make you cringe: everybody cringes, when they first see these sad, broken toys peering out through years of dust
alessandro ciapanna
DOLCE DORMIRE – rest in rome
ah, rome!
the history… the food… the art… the weather… the architecture… the gelato… the fountains… the cobblestones… the (YAWN)… zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
enjoying the colosseum
new fountain in via di ripetta
you read, i’ll just doze. via di ripetta
all together now. via di ripetta
soakin’ up the april sun. piazza del popolo.
broken but beautiful: rome’s ponte rotto
deep sleep on rome’s isola tiberina, the island on the tiber river
snoozing by the arco dsi costantino, rome
sleeping in style, piazza san silvestro, rome
aprile dolce dormire, we say: it is sweet to sleep in the month of april.
photographs taken in rome, in april.
