Tempus Captum – captured Time.

A Project of Photographic Analysis and Exploration held in the Archaeological Park of the Colosseum.

Dualism. Echoes of a Present Past

by Alan Allegretti

How much does the past influence the present? How different are we from the past? But above all, how similar are we? Driven by these questions, the author embarks on the experience of this photographic project filled with food for thought. Walking through these places gives the impression that it’s not only memories and shadows that have tread upon this ground, but also people with their baggage of emotions and life. Over time, the structures cease to be mere functional elements in themselves; they become the symbol of an ancient time that imprints the thought “I exist here and now today” onto the stones. A present that engages in a dialogue with the past, almost recognizing the common traits. The project aims to precisely narrate this, by showing the dualistic relationship that exists between these two worlds: the similarities, the differences, and the points of intersection. It reminds the observer that the past is not just a collection of faded memories, but an immense library of experiences that still seem to repeat themselves in our everyday life. Forgetting the past would mean losing our perception of ourselves.

Tempus Captum – captured Time.

A Project of Photographic Analysis and Exploration held in the Archaeological Park of the Colosseum.

Beautiful and sad like Rome

by Mattia Calogero

The realization of this project arises from the idea of ​​telling the Archaeological Park of the Colosseum through an intimate, melancholic, and decidedly unusual perspective. The condition that best represented this vision for the author was that of rainy days when the subject presents itself in a less inviting attire for a common visitor but certainly more evocative for a photographic eye. It is a strong and decisive countercurrent choice that is made, which invites not only observation but also flowing with all the senses of the images. It is with the sound of rain in mind, with its smell and its lack of color that they must be experienced. The sadness suggested by the title is a meditative, contemplative sadness aimed at transcending the boundaries of the visible.

The water droplets falling on the lens create “stains” on the images and at the same time give some shots a “noisy” effect that amplifies the melancholic impact of each individual shot. From the meditative solitude that the photographic step brings with it, a desire for escape also emerges, thanks to the presence of stage elements, in focus and out of focus, that evoke something unattainable and distant. The appearance of animals such as pigeons and seagulls, captured with different exposure times, sometimes motionless without the possibility of escape, and other times almost fleeing from the frame, contribute to this desire. The choice of black and white then becomes the ideal tool in the photographic vision to evoke such suggestions, avoiding the distraction of color and allowing the observer to focus on the emotions.

Tempus Captum – captured Time.

A Project of Photographic Analysis and Exploration held in the Archaeological Park of the Colosseum.

Dreamy Giant

by Matteo Capozza

Seemingly detached from everyday life in many ways, the Colosseum is so familiar to each of us that we can hardly grasp the beauty of having one of the seven wonders of the world in our own city. By trying to observe it with different eyes, simply sitting on the walls and watching it without doing anything, one can manage to grasp much more than by just looking at it while strolling by. The Colosseum has lived a lot and has been many things. Fantasizing, one can conclude that it is nothing more than a giant that has long finished its days of service to the city. A sleeping giant, now limited solely to being watched by the masses of distracted tourists who crowd Rome. It is absorbed in its dreams, dreams of an old life still engraved in its walls, buried in its ruins, and hidden in its underground passages. Through the reinterpretation of classical works, this project aims to tell this flow of life, exploiting the technical possibilities of post-production to create a bridge between the past and the present and imagine being able to give another life to this Dreaming Giant, which we should learn to observe and not just look at.

Credits: Christofer Wilhelm Eckersberg, “View through the three northwest arches of the third floor of the Colosseum,” 1815, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen (SMK), Copenhagen Herbert Gustave Schmalz, “Faithful Unto Death,” 1888, private collection Hubert Robert, “The Colosseum in Rome,” 1780-1790, Museo del Prado Henryk Siemiradzki, “A Christian Dirce,” 1897, National Museum, Warsaw François-Leon Benouville, “The Christian Martyrs Enter the Amphitheater,” 1855, Musée d’Orsay, Paris Hubert Robert, “The Hermit of the Colosseum,” 18th century, Public domain file Ippolito Caffi, “View of the Colosseum,” 1840, Palazzo Mazzolari Mosca, Pesaro Edmund Blair Leighton, “The Gladiator’s Wife,” 1884, Public domain file José Benlliure y Gil, “The Vision of the Colosseum. The Last Martyr,” 1885, Museum of Fine Arts, Valencia

Tempus Captum – captured Time.

A Project of Photographic Analysis and Exploration held in the Archaeological Park of the Colosseum.

Over Time

by Marco di Paola

A profoundly experimental project is what the author wanted to create in “Over Time.” Guided by the storytelling techniques of one of the foremost exponents of contemporary photography, Mimmo Jodice, the project develops an immersive and surreal visual journey in search of evocative images enhanced by Jodice’s technique of motion blur. The author draws inspiration from Jodice, almost as if attempting to bring to life and make present in the scene the archaeological works whose energy seems to traverse the centuries and reach our eyes unchanged.

The photos are rendered detached from chronological data, with a vibrato effect that generates a centrifugal force spreading from the center of the image, evoking the suggestion that what we perceive as static—a wall, an arch, a marble face—possesses a pulsating energy that reaches the observer. More than recounting an archaeology of art, it becomes an archaeology of emotions, where the subjects come back to life and engage in a dialogue with contemporary humans.

Tempus Captum – captured Time.

A Project of Photographic Analysis and Exploration held in the Archaeological Park of the Colosseum.

The People

By Davide Di Pietro

For centuries, the places that now form part of the Colosseum Archaeological Park have been constantly traversed and visited by an incredible number of people. Thousands and thousands of gazes, footsteps, and emotions have settled upon the stones of each individual place. And in some mysterious way, a trace of their passage has remained imprinted within these walls.

In this project, the author seeks to bring to light the souls of what we can consider a true and proper People, who have daily crossed the ruins using a particular photographic technique, playing with light and exposure times to achieve an almost dreamlike effect in every shot, where the imprint of an imaginary passage becomes reality. The shots draw on the contingency of the present and provide a moving snapshot of the current moment.

Each individual shot has subsequently been developed in digital black and white to eliminate any form of personality and make the human trail a unique perception.

The work, purely experimental and born almost as a game, has subsequently evolved into a concrete materialization of a fleeting idea. And upon seeing it completed, a beautiful quote by Diane Arbus comes to mind: “I truly believe there are things that nobody would see unless I photographed them.”

Tempus Captum – captured Time.

A Project of Photographic Analysis and Exploration held in the Archaeological Park of the Colosseum.

Through Nature

by Francesca Fortunato

The project revolves around the representation of the sites in the Archaeological Park of the Colosseum, seen through nature. The ruins, for once, become not the exclusive subject but the backdrop, in a game of inverted relationships, focusing on the exuberance with which nature has grown over time. The combination of ruins and nature is seen as a perfect synthesis of history: on one hand, humans engaging in the construction of new buildings, and on the other, the resources that the place offers them.

In these photographs, the author explores and shares the sense of tranquility and security that nature has been able to evoke in her. Photography becomes a cathartic experience that allows one to enter in symbiosis with the greenery and intimately appropriate a place that ceases to exist in reality and becomes an image in which one can get lost every time it is observed.

Tempus Captum – captured Time.

A Project of Photographic Analysis and Exploration held in the Archaeological Park of the Colosseum.

Sweet Lives

by Margherita Magli

Tourists are a very strange but also very distinct category of humanity. Recognizable from afar, often with recurring attitudes and behaviors, similar yet unique. “Sweet Lives” arises from this: a careful observation of the peculiar individuals called tourists. Those who admire the Forum with great light and astonishment in their eyes, those who are bored and only wait to go eat carbonara. Those who share anecdotes they read just before on Wikipedia with friends, those who wander alone while listening to the audio guide. Those who appear tiny next to the Colosseum, and those who, on the contrary, make it completely fade. Those who photograph every detail and those who let their gaze wander without filters. All of this is presented as an old book of memories from a magical journey. Rich in fragments, annotations, and details, worn and faded just like a memory that never ceases to tell and preserve the past. Each of these subjects is as interesting and magical as the places they find themselves in, and each of these souls has their own small, personal sweet life to tell. Tourists are beautiful to observe and immortalize in their spontaneity. They are beautiful to paparazzi. It is no coincidence that the term “paparazzo” derives from Fellini’s eponymous character. After all, what does a paparazzo do if not make even the most tasteless life sweet?

Tempus Captum – captured Time.

A Project of Photographic Analysis and Exploration held in the Archaeological Park of the Colosseum.

Rome. A Majestic Vision

by Sergio Pauri

“Or should you see the Colosseum, 50,000 Romans watching every movement of your sword, waiting for the final blow to strike. The silence before the strike, and the roar that follows, grows, grows, and rises like a storm, as if you were thundering Jupiter.” ~ Proximo – Gladiator ~

Rome, the eternal city, which has given birth to poets, kings, emperors, known throughout the world for its splendid architectural works and the grandeur of its buildings. And it is precisely the overwhelming beauty of grandeur that is the key to understanding this project. A grandeur that makes anyone who loses themselves in the contemplation of this beauty feel small in its presence. The gaze wanders over the buildings and is compelled to reach their summits, with the awareness that it can never fully conquer them. Looking upwards, the sun breaks against the hard stone, acquiring color. Seagulls make the sky feel even closer, and the passing clouds seem to caress the Colosseum. Through a wide-angle view, this sensation is heightened, creating an inherent feeling of grandeur and a sublime desire for astonishment, in a ritual that remains unchanged through the centuries.

Postcards

by Luca Rovere

The project arises from the author’s fascination with postcards, which he considers, since their first appearance in the historical scene of visual representation of a place, to be of great interest. The Colosseum has been one of the most depicted subjects over time. Postcards have often been denied the recognition they deserve for their long history, being relegated to a mere superficial representation of a place, devoid of personality and evocativeness. However, if one were to pause and consider their ability to narrate often distant places with a perfect synthesis of their most distinctive features, conveying them to the world on a simple piece of paper, everything would take on a different shade.

Postcards originated as a means of communication, later becoming a true art form. Their main purpose was not only to inform friends and loved ones about one’s whereabouts, but also to represent the essence of the place where the photograph was taken. The iconographic representation of a flourishing and vibrant city preceded the static nature of the monuments. Their ability to travel quickly and over long distances, carrying thoughts, places, and atmospheres, still makes them incredibly fascinating objects today. “Postcards” pays homage to this long history, retracing the languages, characters, and forms of a time that seems increasingly distant from us.

by Valerio Sgammini

The idea behind this project arises from a dream, the dream of having the opportunity to see Rome emptied of all the burdensome volume that daily weighs it down. The author envisions an ideal world in which humanity and all its emotional baggage disappear, leaving nature as the sole protagonist. Thus, the concept of “Nature Absolute” emerges, understood as dominant and all-encompassing in a world that increasingly relegates it to the background. In the images created by the author, nature seems to reclaim the space slowly but inexorably, following a script that has remained unchanged for centuries. Despite mankind’s attempts to contain its force, the balance has often been reversed over the centuries, particularly in these places. The face of the Roman Forum has been deeply transformed by this constant interplay between human-made spaces and natural ones, with nature often prevailing. However, the images convey a sense of peace that can be enjoyed in this space reconquered by nature. It is an unspoiled world, frozen in time, enveloping everything and everyone who immerses themselves in it, inviting them to lose themselves in contemplation.

Tempus Captum – captured Time.

A Project of Photographic Analysis and Exploration held in the Archeological Park of the Colosseum.

Hidden Engravings

by Leonardo Totino

Giovanni Battista Piranesi was a great Venetian engraver whose creations were characterized by incredible architectural rigor and three-dimensional constructions modeled on solid notions of perspective. His visionary genius fascinated great minds like Escher, renowned for his dizzying architectures and his fascination with mathematically perfect and abstract worlds. It is to them that the author has drawn inspiration for his project, particularly from Escher’s Italian period and Piranesi’s “Imaginary Prisons.” Seeking to highlight the structures of the Palatine Hill in a style reminiscent of the two artists, the project evolved in search of usually overlooked places so that the viewer could more easily detach the depicted locations from ordinary reality. Hence the choice to take many shots from a low angle, constructing suggestive perspectives and expansive views that could enhance arches and diagonals, elements extensively used by Piranesi. To reference Escher’s expanded, panoramic, and clearly altered vision, where the inside and outside, the below and above, are not always clear or obvious, the sky has been obscured. Removing a pivotal reference point, with the idea of abstracting the Palatine Hill from the real world and bringing it back to a place that can only exist in the imagination. The entire work has been graphically “translated” into the style of engraving, and thus onto paper soaked in the ink of the matrix, recreating an effect that can evoke it in the observer’s mind.