Pertra

At night, in Rome, I invite people in my car to share a secret and have their portrait taken.

I always loved the night. So much so I identify it with a state of being. In Rome we are blessed with rich nightlife, and since my adult years I happened to live nighttime hours more intensely than most of the people I know. In spite of my daytime occupations I always felt I was drawn towards it, when my hometown reveals a rather unfamiliar, surprising look. Daytime traffic in Rome is usually crazy, and the public transport system unreliable and byzantine, so we end up establishing a relationship with our own private means of transportation, that is at times funny, and at times sentimental. I love my mini. I love riding it at night, when streets and avenues open, looking for places and people to revel themselves under a different light. People at night change. Their daytime mask falls off and I often sense they are more prone to reveal an hidden side of them. Nighttime makes them more available to open up. I love being the recipient of their life stories, and as a photographer I yearn for the privilege to be there with the camera and be able to record a glimpse of that revelatory process. That’s why, when I stumble upon someone interesting during these nighttime rides, I ask them to sit for an impromptu portrait session in my car. The car is a private, intimate space on the verge of the city night. A bubble. Often during these sittings I ask the subjects to share with me something private and with their permission I record it on my phone.