Most visitors know how Rome looks like by daytime, full of the international tourists' hustle and bustle and foggy by dense traffic. It is a city that always seems restless and crowded, but not at night. Alessio Pellicoro took his camera and explored Rome in the dark hours' serene atmosphere, discovering the hidden souls of the ancient city. “The night is like a shelter in which the city can find peace, running away from the human whims that exhaust its beauty.”

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What made Alessio Pellicoro begin with his series Nocturne Rome? Did he want to show how Rome looks without tourists, or did he want to discover its hidden ancient soul?

“The concept of the entire project was to offer a personal vision completely outside of the stereotypical idea of the metropolis. Rome has a soul which, in my opinion, is unable to express itself completely in everyday life as it should. In my opinion, being able to observe it at night was almost an absolute revelation because I was able to savour the unconsciousness of places which are usually altered by the chaos of the city. I consider Rome as my hometown, although I was actually born somewhere else since it is precisely there that I believe I was born from an artistic point of view, thanks to the energies and vibes that the city transmits constantly. Rome breathes, and it exudes life through its walls, and during my nocturnal trips, these seemed to move beside me at every step, following me in the search and discovery of his hidden soul.”
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Losing identity

In one photo, we see an ancient Roman aqueduct, surrounded by trees; on another a pyramid in the background and columns in the foreground. There is also a photo of the colosseum with a part of the arc of Constantine on the foreground. The nocturnal photos of Pellicoro show the historic elements of Rome without trying to be informative or descriptive in a classical or touristic way. “Looking back in time, Rome seems to have completely offered itself to tourist exploit, therefore losing its intimate identity, built through thousands of years of history. I always thought of the streets of Rome as a path inside a cinematographic set, assembled just for the amusement of visitors: a place in disguise; a mask that was shaped as time passed in order to face an artificial need at its true face’s expenses. The night is, for this reason, like a shelter in which the city can find peace - a time where Rome goes back to being the eternal city, with respect towards its past. Exposing Rome’s alter ego: this is the story I aimed to narrate. An alter ego which represents the actual essence of the same city which, during the day, shows a mask, a simple background to millions of lives of people that don’t notice the real beauty that this place has to offer.”
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Exposing Rome’s alter ego: this is the story I aimed to narrate.

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Political act

It is undeniable that the Nocturne Rome series not only shows a romantic way of uncovering the eternal past but has an underlying critical voice. Photographs mostly contain a political voice even though not uttered openly. Pellicoro is clear about his inherent political statement. “I believe that the photographer’s job itself is, in fact, a political act, in terms of participation with “visual words” to the modern “póleis” (cities, communities). With the act of representation, you can offer your personal vision or opinion towards what surrounds you and the society in which you live. In my case, everything is explained by images, while in other cases, it could be exposed by painting or sculpture or writings. What I produce are the results of my thoughts, and my images are supposed to show how I interact with society and vice versa. Everyone, when approaching another person, has to begin a process of translation and synthesis in order to transmit ourselves in a general and collective context. The feeling of loneliness and critics are born subsequently, depending on how what you want to narrate is taken, conceived and understood. I love photography because it’s able to scream while remaining silent and has the elegance of an opinion even though it’s criticizing something.”
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Perspective and shift lens

The buildings and columns in Pellicoro’s photos are all perfectly aligned without perspective aberrations. He uses a full-frame camera with a shift lens to get the vertical lines straight. “In the past, I had to arrange the composition by using the possibilities offered by Photoshop to fix the perspectives, and I must say this helped me a lot to grow up since I learned how to approach the best way possible to form a constituent point of view. It’s necessary to start from those few means available. Otherwise, there is the risk of not being able to utilize them at the best of their capabilities, the risk of not appreciating the value of a potential future upgrade to more advanced equipment.”

The exposures of the photos were often long, sometimes taking more than two minutes. “This complicates everything because it increases the variables you have to keep an eye on at the moment of the open shutter, but at the same time it makes you more aware of what you’re doing.”
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Post Processing

The process of post-production is for Alessio Pellicoro a vital part of the production. Moreover, he thinks it is essential to fully understand the scene you photograph in order to represent it. “I personally never want to exaggerate with post-production since I believe that most of the optimal realization of the image has to be done in the field, with awareness and precision. If you worked well, it would only be about calibration of light, contrast and shadows in post-production. I learned that the survey of a specific place is more important than how you essentially represent it because it helps you understand it in its essence. Understanding a place means elaborating it in your subconscious and internalizing it. If this process doesn’t happen you will never be able to represent it well. Then you’ll run the risk of copying one of the many representations that have nothing to do with your individual gaze and your personality.”
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Italian School

Alessio Pellicoro is deeply influenced by the Italian school and famous Italian writers, especially Italo Calvino. “The entire Italian photographic school works as a fundamental pillar of my photographic subconscious, from Luigi Ghirri to Guido Guidi and from Gabriele Basilico to Olivo Barbieri. They taught me how to look at and comprehend the everyday life with a stranger’s eye, without making it common; discovering again, every day, the beauty in the little things, that are hidden protagonists in our lives. Italo Calvino narrates his invisible cities in his homonym book. They are nothing else but externalizations of a subconscious in ferment. These externalizations create worlds that appear real, and that are born from a simple suggestion offered by a cornice, a bush, a coloured brick of a house or a smoking chimney.”
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Alessio Pellicoro was born and raised in Taranto, a province of the South that was devastated by industrial pollution. He started his photographer career more or less four years ago, by chance. He found an old, battered Hasselblad that belonged to his father in a dusty chest. He studied at the European Design Institute IED in Rome.

Together with Klim Kutsevskyy and Martha Micali he is going to be produce his project Abisso. Photography has therefore become his sweet obsession, as well as his profession.

https://www.alessiopellicoro.it/