Assignment #1 Photographing Today’s Florence
When I was younger, I had the most horrendous sense of direction. It drove my father crazy. So, in an attempt to remedy the situation, I made up a game where the objective was to get lost. Each weekend, I would set out on my bike and, within a set perimeter, would venture out into my neighborhood until I no longer had any clue where I was. My goal was to find my way back without the help of map apps or any other outside help. And yes, this game did help improve my navigational skills tenfold. But I learned something else along the way. This game taught me the beauty of getting lost, of setting forth with no idea as to where I was, where I had been, or where I was going. As I grew older, that perimeter grew and now, in Florence, everything is unknown to me. No matter where I step, nothing is familiar and I am thus always lost.
The Solnit readings further solidified what that game had instilled in me: that sense of wanderlust and adventure. I tried to take Solnit’s advice when going out to take these photographs. I leaned into the unknown. Rather than solely paying attention to any landmarks that would help me navigate back to where I started, I focused more on the minuscule: a man sitting alone with a cup of coffee, a pigeon pecking at the sidewalk for scraps, tourists taking in the breathtaking architecture of the city. And I noticed that this deepened my appreciation the the city and widened my understanding of what it meant to be lost.
THE ASSIGNMENT
At first, I wasn’t really sure of how to approach the assignment. I spent a lot of time analyzing the photographs on the slides, as well as the Alinari website, and felt intimidated. Eventually, I knew I had to force myself to go out and take photos, which is exactly what I did.
I chose to order my photos based on modernity. The first three photographs, taken at Forte Belvedere, show little modern additions beyond some railings and an emergency call button. In the third photo, I chose to include people to show the scale of the building, as the Alinari did in their photographs. The fourth photo is of the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, built in the 18th century. The photo also shows some of the changes to the city, including the metal gates at the entrance, modern cars parked in the front of the building, motorbikes, and road signs. However, despite the changes surrounding it, the building itself appears frozen in time. The fifth photo is another angle of the Bilbioteca Nazionale Centrale. This photo shows even further development, with numerous cars and bikes parked in front of the building, as well as the city bus driving past in the foreground. The final photo shows a bit of the city’s skyline, including the Duomo di Firenze. I chose to put this photo in color, as I feel it best shows how the city has developed and expanded, while still maintaining its historical elements.
Since I am used to working in color, creating this collection in black in white was a challenge for me, especially when trying to keep the photos from being too dark, while still preserving the cloud detail. I would definitely like to experiment more with black and white in the future to further improve on this.
PHOTOS
