PBY - B-Side_Loose Cannons / A Photoseries by Francesca Emilia Minà

Roaming the streets of Rome under lockdown like a loose cannon, photographer Francesca Emilia Minà finds death and rare sparkles of life in an empty city.

Whilst in lockdown, Italian photographer Francesca Emilia Minà let herself free to roam the deserted streets of Rome without the lead of any themes or the pressure of a commission, just like a loose dog.

This photoseries works as the B-Side to her recent major works, which brought Francesca to self-impose herself a strict attitude to photography that she never felt her own.

“If with the A-Side I had to face everything I had always tried to methodically avoid, the B-Side represented instinctive exploration, unconditioned excitement, it was like retrieving my long self-denied adolescence,” explains the photographer.

Avoiding the inquisitive eye of the Police, Francesca would sneak out her house in the early hours of the morning or just before dinnertime to “be able to walk undisturbed searching for those macabre and sinister traces that I was sure a quiet, residential life could hide. Like a loose cannon, I was moved by a desire becoming everyday more and more obsessive.”

“Like a loose cannon, I was moved by a desire becoming everyday more and more obsessive.”

Animal carcasses, abandoned wrecks, ambiguous traffic signs, but also rare yet exciting human presences appear and suddenly vanish like shapes in the fog. Francesca’s emphatic use of grainy black and white film further augments such suspended feeling of caducity.

“The death surrounding us, which I was reading about all over the place, couldn’t be too far from my doorstep.”

“The death surrounding us, which I was reading about all over the place, couldn’t be too far from my doorstep.”

You wouldn’t say these streets belonged to Rome, if you weren’t from there. These photographs tell the metropolis’ other face, far from its great beauty, its ancient landmarks, lush boutiques, and Roman centurion impersonators. It is an empty yet viscerally alive Rome, closer to Pier Paolo Pasolini’s novels than to the stereotypical depiction made by low-cost airlines’ brochures.

Find more about Francesca’s works on https://www.francescaemiliamina.com/ or follow her on Instagram @femfemfemfemfemfem

All photographs by Francesca Emilia Minà exclusively for Synaesthetic Magazine. All rights reserved.