Next to my house, in Rome, there was a small, crowded neighborhood café, that served a great espresso. On March 9th, 2020, when the Italian government imposed the national lockdown, I was their last client.
The Workers/Lavoratori series is, above all, about hope and being human.
I decided to start photographing the workers who were considered frontline at the beginning of the pandemic (Italy being the first western country to be drastically affected) as a foreign photographer, this was my only chance for some human contact and due to their courage and resilience, they have shown me clearly that the future was there, in their hands!
That’s when I got the idea for the series. In the precious few minutes I had to photograph them with all the tension of COVID in the air, there was always a mix of modesty and surprise, “Why me? Are you sure?”...
Roma, Italy 2020
2362 × 3310 px
