The Colosseum alone
So that Rome won whole beauty it was only necessary not to share it with anyone. Something complicated if we take into account the number of tourists it receives per day; but not impossible if the one who looks at it is the photographer and creative Ignatius Pereira , with his know-how and his infinite patience at the service of what he is so good at: empty the big cities of people.
First he panned his camera around Madrid then he took her to London to then travel to tokyo, New York Y istanbul and, in the middle of this month of January, arrive in Rome and bring enough snapshots on his memory card to get, after combining them and submitting them to a conscientious editing work, that the Fontana di Trevi, the Plaza de España, the Plaza de Navona, the Colosseum or the Vatican show off their beauty and majesty in solitude.
Castel Sant'Angelo
Pereira knew Rome, as probably most of us did, on a school trip. “It should be forbidden to make end-of-year trips to Rome because you are going for something else” , he explains to Traveler.es to later describe the fascination that the city caused him.
“You look at the Palatine and it's overwhelming to see the power that was there, and those monumental constructions that people started and knew they were not going to see the end of. Like the Colosseum. It is a change of mentality that has shocked me quite a lot”.
So much so that he places her in the first position of all the trips that he has made. “It is the most interesting because it is the eternal city and its history is amazing, the energy, there are many things to do, to see, to enjoy, to photograph. More than eternal, it is infinite because it has something that no other city has or will be able to have: history”.
With a less apocalyptic touch than the images that make up his other series, Pereira, the Italian capital, had a hard time allowing himself to be portrayed and create the series Rome in solitude . Beginning, paradoxically, with the good weather and the lack of clouds that prevent him from achieving those metallic tones that he likes for his work , and following by the excessive amount of people and the lack of care in the facilities that surround the monuments.
The Fontana di Trevi, the most complicated image of the series
“When you travel and work outdoors, you cannot choose the day you would like to take the photo. In Madrid, for example, I have several locations that I want to do, I suspend them and do them the day I see that it is perfect. In Rome, the weather was great and I get the light that I like for the photos with the clouds” , explains Pereira to Traveler.es.
“I take a photo a day because the images are taken first thing in the morning, when there is good light and there are not many people. . The afternoon light is very good, but there are a lot of people and it would be complicating life”, he adds.
In fact, those were two of the three difficulties he encountered when portraying the Trevi Fountain . The third and the one that turned this location in the most complicated was the “being boxed in between three streets, something that does not allow for a broader framework and you cannot go further back to have a broader vision”.
A lot of work also takes his favorite image, the one taken in The interior of Saint Peter's Basilica in the Vatican.
Interior of Saint Peter's Basilica in the Vatican
"In that photo the sunbeam enters through the window and illuminates a person who has a virgin as if she is accompanying him . It is similar to the one I did in Hagia Sophia [Istanbul], studying the lighting so that without artificial light the altar would also be illuminated”. And it is that in both images lighting is the key and, with it, the recollection that these spiritual places transmit.
Less recollection conveys that of the Spain Square , which Pereira renounces in exchange for immensity. “It is a location very much in my style because it is very spacious and has a very beautiful architectural structure” he explains.
And in all of them, yes, a person appears, that famous wayfarer to whom he has us accustomed. If in Tokyo he focused on the workers and in New York on the tourists, in Rome alone Pereira lets the viewer imagine the story behind that character, lucky enough to say enough not to have to share the eternal city and its beauty with anyone.
“That character is difficult to choose to create a story, because We all have a little story to tell. Reading him leaves it open for people to imagine what is happening in photography”, he says of some protagonists who choose based on the magic that they transmit and the technical issues to achieve a round image (location, light, space...).
Spanish Steps
It was in 2017 when we learned about Ignacio Pereira's work in 'emptying' Madrid of people. More than two years looking at cities in a different way have given him time to reflect on loneliness.
“We have to give ourselves our own alone time. You're missing out on doing things yourself . I started traveling with a friend and when I couldn't, I ended up going alone and that loneliness is very positive because in your environment it is good that you disappear for a while and come back. (…) It is the best experience, being able to be alone, thinking, reflecting and enjoying these places yourself”.
After Rome, a project in which he once again enlisted the collaboration of Room Mate Hotels, Pereira already has his next destinations in mind: Paris and Berlin.
Piazza Navona