The New York photographer Albert Watson challenges the conventional representations of the Eternal City, outlining a contemporary anthropological narrative of its most authentic essence. In over five decades of career, from 1970 to today, Watson has established himself as one of the most influential and prolific photographers worldwide. Blending art, fashion, and commercial photography with unparalleled versatility and depth, he has created icons that have entered the collective imagination.

200 photographs, one city to decipher

The exhibition presents 200 black and white and color photographs, often in large format, set up in the first three main halls of Palazzo Esposizioni Roma. The images are arranged according to an instinctive and non-thematic logic, to reflect a free and contemporary fruition. In the vast exhibition space, intimate and spontaneous human moments are juxtaposed with the architectural and historical grandeur of the City, in a play of references between Rome and those who inhabit and define it.

Albert Watson breaks down hierarchies: a portrait, a landscape, an interior, an anonymous face or a celebrity coexist with the same narrative intensity. As a whole Roma Codex offers a visual compass, at the same time instinctive and meticulous, to decipher a city rich in contrasts.