the homage and the hero collection
I was born and raised in Rome, yet I only truly saw its charm when I began to photograph it. The familiar streets, the stones holding memories, the ancient facades I’d passed a thousand times began to whisper. Not with nostalgia, but with presence, with breath, with soul. Suddenly, what I once took for granted revealed itself as a gift: a legacy handed down by those who came before us. This work is my way of honoring that gift. Each image in this collection holds a quiet tension, a dialogue between two presences: the homage and the hero.
The homage is the architecture, the city itself, timeless and immovable, worn by weather and adversities, yet still standing with grace. These structures are not merely beautiful, they are survivors. They carry within them the invisible weight of sacrifice and joy, suffering and celebration, pain and beauty all at once. They endure where we cannot. They remain when everything else moves on. In their stillness they hold centuries.
And then there is the hero, a stranger, chosen from the crowd. Not a symbol, but a soul in motion. Sometimes it’s the sway of a dress, a gesture, their unique presence. I never plan for them, I wait, I watch, and when something moves me I follow that feeling. Each hero is fragile and fleeting, erratic, a brief flare of life passing through spaces that have seen thousands before them. Their presence is momentary like a breath, a heartbeat, and then they are gone. But in that moment, they bring my work to life.
This contrast is what moves me most: the sharp line between permanence and vulnerability, between the vast endurance of stone and the delicate brevity of a human life, they collide and embrace. One stands still for centuries, the other flickers past in seconds. And yet, for a moment, they belong to one another.
Through a painstaking and careful process, I overlay dozens of photographs into one image. This allows me to retain the memory of movement, to soften time into something almost painterly. The result is not just a photo, but a felt moment, a flowing composition, where the past holds the present, and movement lives inside stillness. Soft colors and gentle motion dissolve the boundaries between hero and homage, creating a dance where movement is reclaimed and time seems to fold.
I create these images to offer an invitation to immerse the viewer in an escape, a breath between thoughts so that they can feel something shift inside them, they can bring their own story into the frame. Because when you surrender to the image that’s when my work is done.
