When I travel to a new place, there are few things I make sure to look for and find (The rest I leave for serendipity): An area where I can find great graffiti and street Art, an area where I can find people hanging their laundry outdoors and the best view of the city.
There is nothing like walking all day in the streets of a new place and then (usually at the end of the day just before sunset) climbing up a mountain, a hill, a tall tower, a bridge, the 43rd floor (in case of Manhattan) the 6th floor (in case of Montmartre in Paris) or anything that helps you see the city in a whole new different perspective. When you are up, overlooking the city, you no longer hear the traffic in the streets (you just see the cars), you don’t see the people in eye level and you don’t smell the street vendor’s food, the smoke or anything else.
It is a sort of serenity. a state of mind. (and an important addition for a Travel Portfolio)
Here are some rooftops locations from Madrid, Barcelona, Bologna, Rome, Florence, Buenos Aires, Lisbon, Paris and Manhattan. If you have more recommendations, please send me a message.
Few days after I wrote this post, I was chosen by Easy Jet Holidays as one of their Bloggers of the month as they chose to feature this post on their website. Check it out and some other great inspiring bloggers.
Window or Aisle? is a new column on my Travel blog, in which I feature some of my colleagues and people I meet either on-line or off-line. People with whom I have at least one thing in common: The love of Traveling.
With some of them I was working in the past or collaborated on some projects, some I met through my travels and we were just shooting the breeze and shooting what was around us. With some, I know I would love to collaborate somehow somewhere in the near future.
My first guest is a good friend of mine, Peter Zullo, a photographer from Bologna, Italy. I first met Peter in a photography class we both took at ICP during the winter semester. As quiet and shy Peter was at first, his pictures really blew me away. Especially his on going project Bologna Specular Reflections which spread out to other cities in Italy and New York as well. I met Peter again when I traveled to Florence last October and we shot together in Venice. I was looking for Laundry shots and Peter was looking for Reflections (yep, that’s me in the picture above)
I’m really happy to introduce you to Peter’s work and have him answer some of my questions. Thanks Peter!
Where are you from? I’m italian. I live in Bologna.
Where did you study photography? I have studied photography for the last fifteen years and have attended courses and seminars with professional photographer both in Spazio Labò (Bologna) and in ICP (NYC).
What made you want to learn it? I was very disappointed by the pictures I took during my first trip in the West of the USA. So I decided I should improve my skill. Since then, I continued studying and taking pictures of people and places while traveling.
If you weren’t a photographer, what would you be? A teacher
Where do you get your inspiration from? Famous photographers (like Steve McCurry), Italian photographers I met (like Giulio Di Meo www.giuliodimeo.it) and talented colleagues. But I think my greatest inspiration are people. I’m a great observer and I try to shoot people and the places around them.
How do you usually approach a new project? I try to keep my mind open. Usually the result is really different from the first idea. My “Specular Reflections” series should have been a project about all kindS of reflections. After a few weeks of shoots I realized I could do something more specific and unusual.
What are you working on right now? I’m working on a couple of projects of social photography in Bologna. And I’m ready for my next trip: Berlin
Window or Aisle seat? I can’t sleep on airplane flights. I spend my time organizing my pictures and admiring the landscape. The world seen from an airplane is so quiet and amazing. No doubt. Window.
