bari

I left Bari many years ago. It is my adoptive hometown, and when I return every once in a while, I enjoy walking around aimlessly, meeting old friends, the cool breeze from the sea, rediscovering situations and places that haven’t really changed that much.

Bus stop (1/200 sec. at f/5.6, ISO 400, 28 mm).

This time (around March 2017) I made a point of taking a camera1 on my walks and photograph what are objectively banal, everyday scenes. After many months locked away, I have looked again at these photos and found them to be true, sincere, little snapshots of Bari and I like them for what they are.

My original idea was to build a short series of interesting, meaningful vignettes of my hometown — but the plan failed miserably.

I probably should have done a bit of planning beforehand and not just go around on foot, hopeful that serendipity would help me out like it has done several times already.

Casual shots “work” for me when I’m on holiday in some new place; i find photos just happening before me, they are satisfying from a technical standpoint, and remind me of good, unique places or situations (see Cuba for example).

When I’m in a familiar place like my hometown there is so much that I have to fight, like the boredom of looking at places that I know so well and see them with new eyes. I’d love to make other people understand why I love my hometown so much despite hating probably 90℅ of everything that’s in there.

But I missed so many things: the blinding sun of early March, the squalid but somehow rich urban landscapes from the periphery of the city center, the smell and the cool breeze of the sea when I get off the plane at Palese airport, the harsh local slang, the placid queues of the immigrants near the police station, in stark contrast with the barely contained disdain that every last one of the Bari’s inhabitants display towards them.

Also: the people, the flaneurs, all impossibly cool, walking with their chin up like they all own the streets, with no sense of awareness for their fundamental stupidity in posing this way because if everyone pretends to be cooler than most than who’s left to be impressed?

Peeling fava beans (1/40 sec. at f/2.8, ISO 1600, 28 mm).

streets

Castello Svevo (1/480 sec. at f/8.0, ISO 400, 50 mm).
Corso Vittorio Emanuele (1/2500 sec. at f/5.6, ISO 400, 28 mm).
People queueing (1/280 sec. at f/8.0, ISO 200, 28 mm).
Girl with leaflets (1/550 sec. at f/4.0, ISO 200, 28 mm).
La muraglia (1/55 sec. at f/2.0, ISO 3200, 50 mm).
Via Sparano (the perennial banter and chatter of people: 1/500 sec. at f/5.6, ISO 200, 28 mm).
Fiore, servizio rapido (1/60 sec. at f/2.0, ISO 3200, 50 mm).
Bari-style fast food (1/210 sec. at f/2.8, ISO 3200, 50 mm).
Nderralalanza (1/55 sec. at f/2.8, ISO 3200, 50 mm).
The colours of the sky (1/300 sec. at f/2.8, ISO 1600, 50 mm).

friends

My friend Angelo from primary school on the left; on the right, Angelo’s friend (1/220 sec. at f/2.0, ISO 1600, 50 mm).
Piero cooking seafood (1/450 sec. at f/2.0, ISO 800, 50 mm).
Tools of the trade (1/240 sec. at f/2.8, ISO 800, 50 mm).
Essential ingredients of local cuisine (1/300 sec. at f/2.0, ISO 800, 50 mm.
Pippo (1/420 sec. at f/2.0, ISO 800, 50 mm.
Bruno and Riccardo (1/105 sec. at f/2.0, ISO 1600, 50 mm).
Valentina and Susanna (1/45 sec. at f/2.0, ISO 1600, 50 mm).
Mariella and Riccardo (1/30 sec. at f/2.0, ISO 1600, 50 mm).
Valentina and Nicola playing with Piero (1/40 sec. at f/2.0, ISO 800, 50 mm).
Window view from Piero and Valentina’s house (1/140 sec. at f/4.0, ISO 800, 50 mm).

shops

Edicola/1 (1/1600 sec. at f/2.0, ISO 400, 28 mm).
Barbershop/1 (1/340 sec. at f/2.0, ISO 1600, 28 mm).
Barbershop/2(1/170 sec. at f/2.0, ISO 1600, 28 mm).
Salumeria Due Archi/1 (1/1250 sec. at f/5.6, ISO 1600, 28 mm).
Salumeria Due Archi/2 (1/300 sec. at f/2.0, ISO 1600, 28 mm).
Edicola/2 (1/105 sec. at f/6.4, ISO 400, 28 mm).

the defining scene

Roadside chat (1/80 sec. at f/10.0, ISO 200, 28 mm).

  1. All of these photos were taken with a Fuji X-Pro1 and one of the two lenses that I have, a 50mm and a 28mm-equivalent. You can read more on the camera here. I have struggled a lot on the decision of how to best render these images. I made them in color originally but decided to go mostly (not entirely) black and white, which is a bit against my instinct and also the judgement of somebody else that has a natural good taste for imagery. I have made two stacks of 10x15cm prints, one stack is color the other is black and white. I still don’t know what’s best. ↩