Roma: Camera obscura

My project utilizes buildings of Rome's historic architecture, transforming them into camera obscura installations where the city is captured on large negatives. The goal is to create a symbiosis between the external space, shaped by millennia of history, and the contemporary representation of a harsh city, turning it upside down. The idea that Rome's glorious past holds the positive and the present represents the negative is allegorized through the photographic representation, which inherently accomplishes this inversion. Thus, the physical process becomes a tool for the cultural analysis of an era.

The project thus far has involved installations in the following four locations with the latest in progress at the San Buonaventura Church based atop the Palatine Hill.

2019 // CHIESA DI SANTA MARIA IN PORTICO IN CAMPITELLI

The first installation of the project ROMA: CAMERA OBSCURA was created in the attic of the Church of Santa Maria in Portico in Campitelli from three different views. In the same space is the studio of the artist Andrea Pinchi.
2021 // VIA DEL GOVERNO VECCHIO

The second installation was created on the rooftop of a historic residential building in the heart of the city. In this case as well, I oriented the camera obscura in three different directions, one of which was facing the Chiesa Nuova.
2022/23 // CHIESA NUOVA

The attic of the tympanum of the Chiesa Nuova is the current location where some of the works of my project ROMA: CAMERA OBSCURA are exhibited as well as the location where I shot the large scale negatives of Rome.
2024 // San Buonaventura Church

The upcoming project phase, set atop Palatine Hill, Rome’s birthplace, focuses on the 'Roma Quadrata' architectural layout. In the San Bonaventura convent, a camera obscura will be installed during the summer solstice. This camera obscura, located in the attic with sixteen evenly spaced windows featuring pinhole apertures, will project a 360-degree cityscape onto a central structure, capturing both space and time on a 30-meter by 1.27-meter light-sensitive paper roll. Test negatives have already been shot.

CHIESA NUOVA

The installation under the gable roof of the Chiesa Nuova stands out as one of the most rewarding professional experiences of my career. The extensive work required was challenging and fulfilling, and the outcome surpassed all expectations.

The sacred 16th-century site was transformed into a giant camera, where the pinhole served as the shutter, allowing a real-time projection of the city of Rome to flood into the space. The window essentially became an eye, capturing and preserving the city in a moment of memory.