Sweet Lives

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?