Can one of Italy’s most picturesque cities be captured on a film of just 32 exposures? I pop a disposable camera in my hand luggage and whisk it away on a long weekend to Florence to find out.
As tourists in their masses congregate outside the Duomo, tagged around their neck by a camera strap to differentiate them from the locals, and continuously snap away at the beautiful cathedral convinced that one more push on their shutter release will lead them to accomplish the impossible task of fitting it all into one frame, it becomes clear that a photography epidemic has broken out in Florence. Well known as one of Europe’s most photogenic cities, tourists take pilgrimage to the bellissima città to fill up their camera rolls with thousands of snaps of the renaissance architecture, storing the files by their hundreds in a dark corner on their desktop, to be kept away for sorting out ‘domani.’ Through the hustle of lenses to find the perfect viewpoint, I pulled out my disposable camera – my surgical mask against photo fever. With a film of just 32 exposures, it automatically challenged me to frame the 32 most characteristic shots of this beautiful city and to try to capture the most important aspects of Florentine culture in just a few photographs.
When it comes to the most picturesque viewpoint in Florence, for me this was in the middle of il Ponte Vecchio, where typical Italian architecture surrounds the Arno, on a bridge full of tiny boutiques selling Florentine leather and jewellery. The view is unmistakably picturesque, and the setting somehow shouts to any young romantics with their partners to get down on one knee and ask their girlfriend to choose but any ring from one of the surplus boutiques surrounding them. This view is like a magnet drawing your index finger to the shutter release, and I used 4 of my exposures here – it somehow captures the idyllic city that surpasses everything you expected.