Rome. Portrait of a City

by Giovanni Fanelli

This bumper photographic portrait of Rome brings together hundreds of photographs from the 1840s through to today to explore the extraordinary history, beauty, and art of this incomparable cultural capital. From sepia and black and white to color, these outstanding images dating from the 1840s to the present day allow us — through the eyes of such photographers as Giacomo Caneva, Pompeo Molins, Giuseppe Primoli, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Carlo Bavagnoli, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Pasquale De Antonis, Peter Lindbergh, Slim Aarons, and William Klein — to discover Rome in its many compelling as the center of the Roman Empire, as one of the cradles of the Renaissance, as a favorite destination for travelers and a rich patchwork of varied neighborhoods, as the seat of the Roman Catholic Church, a stage for politics, and as the perfect backdrop for film and fashion shoots. Reaching back into illustrious archives, some of the book’s early images offer us a privileged Grand Tour glimpse of some of Rome’s most treasured landmarks, revealing the Colosseum, Roman Forum, and Spanish Steps almost void of crowds. Later pictures survey the city’s contrasts—from the luxurious homes and leisure activities of the privileged to street stalls and laundry lines in the working class districts of Trastevere and Testaccio. Some documentary-style shots show us the dark power of Mussolini, the city bedecked with his own iconography and imagery of strength, athleticism, and the fatherland. As color photography comes in, the city transitions from a neo-realismo aesthetic to postwar recovery and all the glamorous gowns, exotic celebrities, and Via Veneto café culture immortalized by Fellini. Many famous faces are here, including Louis Armstrong, Elizabeth Taylor, Audrey Hepburn, Marcello Mastroianni, Sophia Loren, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Anna Magnani, and Valentino.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, Art, Photography

485 pages, Hardcover

Published December 8, 2017

Reviews

[Liviu · Rating 5 out of 5]

An awesome artistic photo tour of Rome from 1870 till present (not touristy color ideal pictures, but either real life mostly b&w ones or from movie shootings) - not recommended as a guide or before visiting the city, but superb after you've been there and walked it

[Blagovest Asenov · Rating 4 out of 5]

The album does a remarkable job of capturing the atmosphere of the city, mostly through its inhabitants—their unbothered stance seeming almost as eternal as Rome itself.
From daguerreotypes showing the ruins of the ancient Forum being used as a place to dry laundry, to photographs of vast crowds devoutly converging for mass prayer at St. Peter’s Square, to scenes of Trastevere’s streets filled with tables and chairs in the summer, where people eat and drink like true Italians—to snapshots of Piazza Navona’s massive space serving as a parking lot in the 1960s—Rome has never quite kept pace with the obligations of a modern capital.
In that regard, the quote from writer Stefano Malatesta is spot on: “Rome has always been fascinating and vulgar, beautiful and ugly, international and extremely provincial.”
And that’s what the album manages to convey most powerfully.

[Jack Ryder · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s pretty, but not quite what I was expecting.