italy – FIDELIS FUCHS

ROMA

Juli 3, 2018

For my birthday in February Tatjana and I flew to Rome.
The Italian capital has become one of my favourite cities.

Originally we wanted to drive to Venice, Bologna and Rome
with my camper van, but due to the cold and rainy weather
we went to Rome by plane and stayed in an airbnb close to
Piazza Navona.

I just used my Leica Camera filled with very old (expired 1987)
Ilford Film and the city was enveloped in a blanket of white
snow when we walked along the Tiber.

We enjoyed the winter sun, had the best amatriciana pasta
and visited the Galleria Borghese.

It was a wonderful 5 day getaway trip and the best birthday.

i am working on a series where i take pictures out of my car using an olympus mju ii and cheap fuji film. i just point and shoot through my windshield sometimes holding the camera out of the window of my moving car. i photograph everything that catches my eye. paytoll buildings, other drivers, clouds, the strips of lands between borders, mountains, palmtrees, interesting buildings and the scenery when i cross over bridges. i want to make a book using these photographs documenting the different landscapes and architecture in europe. when i came to zagreb i got one roll developed fast in order to check the quality of my work. the person using the frontier developing machine was very interesting and so i thought of getting the next roll of film developed in rome so i can meet those people still believing in the future of film and making a business. it was very hard to find a lab that processes film fast. nearly impossible. all the internet inquiries told me it would take at least a week. so i almost lost hope to continue the project. one day i got out of the metro one stop early to check out the neighborhood and actually found a little place „nova foto“ that would develop my film in one hour. i was sold.

the next day i packed my roll of fuji superia 200 and dropped it off at the store. it wouldn’t have made sense to use the metro to go to the center as it takes about 20 min, so i wandered around aurelia and took some photos of the streets and people. the authenticity of this area fascinated me much more than the pittoresque little streets of trastevere or the vatican. it wasn’t filled with tourists, making me feel like an outsider looking in for the first time.

the hour passed quickly and the prints were still warm when i picked them up. i even got a little plastic photo-album for them.

la luce di roma

Mai 20, 2016

the last time i was in rome it was the winter of 2006 and the city didn’t really have a big impact on me. the skies were grey, so the beautiful color of the people and buildings couldn’t shine as they are in the beautiful sunlight i am so blessed to experience on this journey.

my bus is parked just inside the city periphery and i can reach the buzzing streets of the city center in just 20 min using the public transport system. to start the 4 day stay in italy’s capital i went to the botanical garden to one work on the materials section of this blog and second think about the photographic goals of this visit.

coming from florence i was already used to hoards of tourists, but i didn’t expect roma to have the same „problem“. i don’t consider myself belonging to this group of people and the selfie-stick gopro invasion of europe. but i am after all one of the tourists and don’t speak any italian so i can’t judge. all that is left for me is to imagine all these beautiful piazzas without the travellers and their parasites leeching on their filled wallets. „are you visiting the sistine chapel“ „skip the line“ „selfie sticks for good price“ and horrible spraypaint art is so common that one just accepts the existence of this unaesthetic part of roma.

nevertheless the beauty of roma’s architecture and love of detail outshines everything. i never felt as if i was in a 3 million people metropole. the small streets are made for the cute fiat 500s just as the cafes are made for the romans to sit and enjoy a panino and coffee. it feels as if the history is present and the beauty of old and new things just perfectly go hand in hand. italian style in design, fashion and architecture is as mature as the river tiber and as sophisticated as the uniforms of the carabinieri.

simply put i am in love with roma and very glad that i have come back almost 10 years later wiping the grey skies out of my memory.

bologna part two

Mai 18, 2016

the second part of my day in bologna was wonderful. i just enjoyed longboarding the walkways and got out of the city center, where i discovered the beautiful entranca hall to the department of political science and sociology of the university.

i took a lot of pictures of the polished stoned floors and the huge variety of colors and shapes they come in. i will attach the pictures to the next post which i will call material one. i am planning to take photographs of materials along this trip. such common things as stone or everyday objects like busstops are the only things left to differentiate between cities full of h&m’s and other franchises taking over our world.

i really liked the guy’s t-shirt saying „when does the fun start“. i guess i can say it already begun.

bologna

Mai 16, 2016

yesterday i drove from zagreb to bologna. the drive through slovenia in the evening light was very scenic. i really want to go to slovenia for a longer period and hike the beautiful mountains. i made only one stop to get gas and a sandwich, all the truckers were sitting at the gas station drinking white wine, one was shaving in the restroom.

in italy i saw wonderful thunderstorms driving through veneto to emilia romagna. in my bus i prepared some food and went to bed around 1 am.

today i got up around 8 and organized my things. as my younger sister says, living in a car is easy as long as you organize all your stuff, so i had to make some adjustments because some things are more important than others. around 11 i grabbed my longboard and went to the outer edge of bologna. it is wonderful weather and the arcades with their smooth polished floors are just perfect to skate through.

i used the wifi connection in the café to upload some of todays photos and write this entry. tonight i am going to florence.

castello miramare

Mai 1, 2016

on the way from venice to zagreb i visited castello miramare 5km northwest from trieste. i had a wonderful break in the park surrounding the beautiful building and took a lot of pictures with my analog nikon camera. i am really looking forward to develop this roll of film since it is such an amazing scenic place.

i then drove through the small streets of trieste. a wonderful city which i visited 2 years ago. the weather was very cloudy and it started to rain so i was off to croatia.

Schlagwort: italy