The history of a city, its architecture, its green areas and people are generally the elements that create the image of the city itself. People often talk about the fact that Milan is shaped by its people, with its big boulevards and the everlasting traffic. However, for someone like me, who has spent most of her life (in the suburbia), the most interesting thing is to observe how things work from the other side; to notice how trademarks and people’s behaviour are styled by the urban context in which they live.
From this “anthropologic” point of view, I have started a journey through the streets of Milan. I’ve stolen images, I’ve shot them point-blank to let the features of the people who crossed my lens emerge; to display the trademarks that made Milan so famous for being grey and frantic; to create parallels between faces and places, bodies and expressions mingling with the heaviness of walls and concrete. Babies completely sealed in their prams, isolated from the cold and the urban pollution; immigrants having trouble integrating in a city that claims to be cosmopolitan, but often dampers even the most brilliant colours.
That’s how I got in touch with the real identity of the city: I’ve given a voice to what I found on the street, allowing my foreign gaze to grab the dull glance of passers-by.
