The Artful Engineer

Wandering around central Rome with a camera. It’s easy to get tired doing that, but not easy to get tired of doing that. There are fun things to find down every alley and around every corner, and there are a lot of both. The only real challenge is that Rome is somewhere being popular and overrun with tourists. I freely acknowledge being part of the problem. On my first visit to Rome, in May of 2022, there were a fair number of tourists, but it wasn’t objectionable. I expected there to be less in March 2026. I was wrong. On my first visit, Covid wasn’t yet passé and had obviously suppressed the tourists a bit. Staying near Trevi Fountain on the second visit probably put us in a busier area, too, than our first stay near Piazza Navona. I am certain that summer is even busier, but March did not meet my definition of off-season. Maybe February?

Fortunately, the crowds tend to congregate at specific famous sites which leaves countless side roads and back alleys to explore relatively unmolested. Tourists don’t tend to be interested in these spots because there “isn’t anything to see.” This, of course, is not true, at least for a photographer. Quiet streets like the one above abound. Close to the major attractions—or at the major attractions themselves—there really is no alternative but to be out early.

Most buildings in central Rome seem to be five or six stories high and many of the streets are very narrow, so scenes like this are abundant:

Many of the buildings (honestly, it seems like almost all of them) have interesting architectural details. Buildings typically use warm colors and are heavily weathered from age, which gives everything nice textures. I composed this next image to exploit the zig-zag of the trim, tying together the painting in the upper right and the window in the lower left.

This bizarre double-decker passage between buildings seems like an addition since it doesn’t match the building on either side and they don’t match each other, either. Perhaps there was a couple that went to the extreme of having separate bedrooms on opposite sides of the alley? Or it was an (admittedly obvious) enabler for romantic liaisons? Hmmm. Maybe there is a better title that plays off those ideas…

I like the rich brownish red and weathered yellow in this image. I also like the strong diagonals that result from the upwards perspective. With all the street-level activity, parked cars, etc., upwards views are often a lot easier to work with.

I’m unsure what the purpose of these barriers are, but perhaps they were installed after someone backed into the first roll-up door on the right and broke the concrete cross-piece. But I can’t fathom why there is a roll-up door and a low gate and a cross-piece all in the same opening: each one of them interferes with the other two. Weird. Regardless, the row of somewhat sloppily-installed barriers has a lot of visual character . The lone red and white pole in the distance extends the pattern, too.

I like finding reflections that make one window stand out versus the rest. In this case, I was able to get a nice reflection at the same time that the overhangs from the other two buildings bracketed it. Fortunately the windows above and below had the shutters closed, preventing reflections there.

Finally, we’ll finish with this image of bicycles that were repurposed into a street sculpture. The artist made good color choices.

I hope you enjoyed this assortment of images. All of these images were in rather soft light and lacked much in the way of deep shadows. Next week I will feature much higher-contrast images in strong light. Expect bolder colors, deep shadows, and graphic compositions.

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