AMERICA'S CORNERS
As a flâneur from 19th century, I wandered in the streets of Boston, Los Angeles, and New York City, in search of inspiration. I intended to record through photography my personal experience as a foreigner living daily the urban space of the American cities. During this trip, I observed the US with foreign eyes, exploring differences and similarities with the old continent. From the East to the West coast, I noted how much places and landscapes can be different: I paid attention to the changes in climate, to the shades of light and the various architectures in which people constantly shape their own existence. However, I also discovered a European unity that I thought.
I found myself captivated by the anthropomorphic and industrial landscape of these cities, and particular object struck me: the street corners
To my Italian eyes, street corners seem to embody North American culture at best. They mark a specific way of organizing urban space and express a unique identity. In their effort to catch the glaze of any passenger coming from all the directions, corners with multiple billboards and neon signs represent a sort of capitalistic anxiety, an entrepreneurial way of life of the city itself, with its own pace and shape. Their nature challenges Italian classical concepts of urbanism and subvert regular notions of facade and perpendicular prospects. Street corners are everyday objects: they can go unnoticed by accustomed routes but they always remain inevitable crossroads in the individual experience of the city.