PHOTOGRAPHY

Photo

Photo

I look for what a passing glance leaves behind.

A small figure above a shop window. The edge of a shadow. A quiet gesture held in stone. My photography begins with the details we pass every day without stopping to see.

I move closer, allowing light, texture and the space around them to reveal another presence. To photograph is to make room for these fragments: to give them time, attention and a place within the silence.

A small figure above a shop window. The edge of a shadow. A quiet gesture held in stone. My photography begins with the details we pass every day without stopping to see.

I move closer, allowing light, texture and the space around them to reveal another presence. To photograph is to make room for these fragments: to give them time, attention and a place within the silence.

Un viale romano alberato con ciliegi in fiore; sullo sfondo, tra i rami e le nuvole, si alza una gru

PHOTOGRAPHY AND POETRY · ROME

The Cherry Tree

I saw a cherry tree in bloom. Just like that. As if the world had forgotten to make any noise. And for a moment, I was back. Back when so little was enough. A sidewalk. Running for no reason. A laugh without even knowing why. I was happy that way. No explanations. Just there. Just alive. Then a second passed. Maybe two. And, as it always does, reality quietly called me back. Not cruelly. Just... the way it is. So I went back to walking a little faster, my head full of things to do, my pockets full of nothing. But inside, that cherry tree stayed. Like something that serves no purpose, yet somehow reminds you of everything. And every now and then, while I'm working, it comes back to me. And I smile. For no reason.

From “Among Things That Don’t Seem to Be Poetry” · Translation by Federica Ventrudo

Within the Silence

Via Condotti, Rome · Three photographs · Tap an image to view it full screen

Via Condotti, Rome: sunlit ochre facade, shop windows and two small stone figures
Via Condotti, Rome: close view of a stone figure in soft light
Via Condotti, Rome: a stone figure and its sharp shadow on the facade

VIA CONDOTTI · ROMA

A closer look

A closer look

One façade, three details waiting to be discovered. Tap the points to notice what often goes unseen.

Via Condotti, Rome: facade with two small stone figures

Look a little closer.

Tap a point to follow a detail. Then return to the whole.

Via Condotti, Rome
Emanuele Dalla Bona

FROM PHOTOGRAPH TO ARTWORK

The art of subtraction

L’arte della sottrazione

The façade

The façade

The city holds the detail among windows, signs and movement.

PHOTOGRAPHY TO ARTWORK · ROME

Rhino-ceros

Rhino-ceros

The real rhinoceros returns to the artwork. Its mass breaks apart, the name passes through it, and the body becomes structure.

The real rhinoceros returns to the artwork. Its mass breaks apart, the name passes through it, and the body becomes structure.

In 1955, Salvador Dalí painted a rhinoceros at Vincennes Zoo, at one point while seated in a wheelbarrow. Here, the artist’s gesture before the animal is the reference, even before the theory.

Reference: Salvador Dalí and the rhinoceros, Vincennes Zoo, 1955.

View Rino-ceronte

View Rino-ceronte

PHOTOGRAPHY TO ARTWORK · ROME

Restrained Presence

Restrained Presence

Among the vegetation, the tiger does not burst into the image: it remains. Its strength is not fully revealed; it is held in the gaze, in the step, in the white that emerges.

Among the vegetation, the tiger does not burst into the image: it remains. Its strength is not fully revealed; it is held in the gaze, in the step, in the white that emerges.

View Presenza trattenuta

View Presenza trattenuta

AKHENATEN · FAMILY · ROYAL MEMORY

Stone, name, memory

A family beneath Aten’s rays; a name entrusted to stone; a fracture that does not erase, but opens a passage back.

Akhenaton e la famiglia in adorazione del dio Aton
Akhenaten and his family worshipping Aten
Statua di Ramesse VI con il dio Amon
Ramesses VI with the god AmunWhy “VI”? The Roman numeral is a modern convention used by Egyptologists to distinguish rulers who shared the name Ramesses. Ancient Egyptians identified him through his royal titulary and cartouches—not as “Ramesses the Sixth”.
Triade di Micerino
Triad of Menkaure
Stele votiva egizia e oggetto a forma di mano
Memory carved into stone
Rovine antiche nel tessuto urbano di Roma
Rome: the ruin as return
Beyond the image

Historical note. Akhenaten belongs to the 18th Dynasty, Ramesses VI to the 20th, while Menkaure lived in the Old Kingdom. They were not contemporaries: here they meet through the way power, family and memory are entrusted to stone.

Enter Broken Stele →

WHAT STAYS WITH YOU

Il taccuino

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Leave a little room for what moves you.

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© 2026 Emanuele Dalla Bona

WHAT STAYS WITH YOU

Il taccuino

Your notebook · 0

Leave a little room for what moves you.

Use “Save to notebook” on an artwork or “Save to notebook” inside a poem. Your favourites will be waiting here.

Your exhibition

Saved only in this browser. No account needed.
If you clear this site's browser data, your notebook will be cleared too.

© 2026 Emanuele Dalla Bona

WHAT STAYS WITH YOU

Il taccuino

Your notebook · 0

Leave a little room for what moves you.

Use “Save to notebook” on an artwork or “Save to notebook” inside a poem. Your favourites will be waiting here.

Your exhibition

Saved only in this browser. No account needed.
If you clear this site's browser data, your notebook will be cleared too.

© 2026 Emanuele Dalla Bona