With his photographs, the Milanese photographer paints a heterogeneous and multi-layered picture of the Italian capital – metaphysical, romantic and everyday.
Text: Sandra Hofmeister
photo: Gabriele Basilico
Dense autumn leaves line the banks of the Tiber. The sunny plane trees are reflected on the surface of the water in the calm curve of the river. The building on the other bank echoes the scenery, transforming autumn into architecture. Gabriele Basilico's impressive colour photographs of Rome's urban river landscape look like historical vedutes. Perhaps his perspectives have already been captured in 18th-century engravings – from the time of the Grand Tour of Italy? In any case, the Milanese photographer, who died in 2013, succeeded like no one else in portraying the moods of the Italian capital.
photo: Gabriele Basilico
From antiquity to the present day
‘Despite all the marble, he really liked Rome,’ says Giovianna Calvenzi, the photographer's wife, who looks after the Gabriele Basilico Archive. The photographer captured many cities with his camera, but with Rome it is different. He visited the Italian capital frequently and repeatedly, taking photographs between 1985 and 2011. In 2000, for example, he photographed the Colosseum and the aqueducts, as well as other ancient monuments. Basilico's high-contrast black-and-white images depict empty spaces and the sharp outlines of architecture - they seem reminiscents of Giorgio de Chirico's pittura metafisica.
photo: Gabriele Basilico
Strolls through the city
The result of Basilico's photographic strolls through Rome is now captured in the volume ‘Gabriele Basilico. Roma’ published by Electa. Anyone hoping to find a uniform picture of the Italian capital here will be surprised to find that exactly the opposite is the case. Over the years, Gabriele Basilico has succeeded in capturing Rome in different facets and with different faces. From street scenes in the deserted suburbs to famous ancient buildings such as the Colosseum, the crowds of tourists on the Spanish Steps and the colourful views of the Tiber: all this is Rome! The impressive and multi-layered portrait of the city is supplemented with biographical information about Basilico and two essays in Italian and English. A book that will make the hearts of all Rome fans beat faster.
„Gabriele Basilico. Roma”, Angelo Piero Cappello, Giovanna Calvenzi, Matteo Balduzzi (edd.), graphic design: Tomo Tomo, 136 pages, paperback with dust jacket, Text Italiano / English, , Electa, Milano 2024, ISBN 9788892827103
