Naples – The Mesmerizing City
I find in the Neapolitan people the most brilliant and vibrant industry, not to get rich, but to live without occupation.
(Johann Wolfgang Goethe)
Naples: The Mesmerizing City Through the Eyes of a Documentary Photographer
This project is a personal and intimate journey into the streets of southern Italy’s most visceral city. Naples Documentary Photography allows me to reveal the city’s raw charm and contradictions.
Every time I go back to Naples it’s like a dive without a parachute in a reality far away from any other social situation I’ve seen in Italy: noble neighborhoods like Vomero mingle with the Spanish ones like the poverty-ridden community “Sanità”. Right here, in Sanità area, back in 2003 I shot my first social reportage to denounce the state of decay and neglect that gripped those streets.
As I wandered through the alleys of the Quartieri Spagnoli, the essence of Naples Documentary Photography became clear: real people, spontaneous moments, and layered stories.
Why Naples is a Symbol of Italian Grit – A View Through Naples Documentary Photography
It was then, for the first time that I realized the mask that Naples is wearing: a mixture of beauty, decay, life, death, romance, din.
I was with another photographer and I was suddenly and anxiously invited to have a cup of coffe by an elderly couple on their balcony on the first floor of a shabby small building. Later they explain to us that the gesture served to save us from the street, where we had been spotted by some muggers on their motorbikes ready to rob us.
They offered us great coffee, prepared by expert hands, showed us around the apartment and I understood immediately where I was: it was the birthplace of “Antonio Griffo Focas Flavio Angelo Ducas Comnenus Porfiro Genito-Gagliardi de Curtis of Byzantium“, also known as Antonio de Curtis, a famous Italian actor known as Totò.
The apartment was kept as a shrine, and after all that’s what it was. After half an hour later, a whistle from the street and a few words spoken in vernacular dialect gave us the green light. We said goodbye to the sweet couple and went down the road trying another photographic approach, and despite a looming danger we did bring home a decent job.
Today, after over twenty years, I continue to visit Naples on a regular basis and I still experience a kind of culture shock due to the striking social divide that is still present. The city is alive at any time, on any day, and I find it more and more vibrant and raw but strongly resistant to change: the children still play on the street, people drive scooters without a helmet, and the locals have not yet become slaves to fashion.
Only the city’s central streets are filled with new shops and throngs of people jostle to get a better look at the latest technological or trendy clothes displayed in the windows.
The sunshine and typical kindness of these people is still mixed with a strong religious and superstitious streak that is noticeable in small daily details. I realized how superstitious people are when, standing in the torrential rain with a small umbrella, I sought shelter under a “good luck” charms stall in the famous street Spaccanapoli. As soon as I set foot under the awning the owner yelled at me indicating that I should close my umbrella immediately, because an open one is a harbinger of doom.
Anyway this is Naples and it always will be, and I want to advise you to visit it and try to start a photographic project, a story to tell or a “simple” street photography picture series. Because I am sure that each photograph would be a chapter in itself.
The streets are still dense with ancient aromas and flavors, with clothes hanging from building to building, political satire scattered everywhere and a lot of street artists here and there. And then the colors. Ah, the colors! Despite the fact that I love black and white photography, when in Naples it’s nearly impossible not to take color photos.
Using wide-angle primes and fast lenses, I aim to bring immediacy to my Naples Documentary Photography, letting the viewer feel the tension and beauty of everyday life.
Go light, as always: a camera and a lens, both discrete and very small. Be unobtrusive because you can easily fall prey to muggers.
Avoid private transport and arrive in the city by rail links that are inexpensive and easy to use.
If you’re drawn to stories that reveal the spirit of a place, explore more of my work in Naples Documentary Photography and discover what makes this city so unforgettable.
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