Albert Watson presents Roma Codex at Palazzo delle Esposizioni An invitation to look at the city with new eyes

Starting May 29, Palazzo delle Esposizioni opens its doors to Roma Codex, the largest photography exhibition ever dedicated to Albert Watson in Italy. The project, promoted by the Department of Culture of Roma Capitale and the Azienda Speciale Palaexpo, curated by Clara Tosi Pamphili, presents an entirely new visual vocabulary for decoding Rome. Watson, who for over five decades has blended art, fashion, and commercial photography with a unique visual language, has turned his career into a visual atlas of humanity. Roma Codex is the latest chapter, perhaps the most personal, in this map made of faces, contrasts, and iconographies. Watson’s Roman photography goes far beyond the Colosseum and Trevi Fountain. Roma Codex rejects the logic of the romantic view and polished beauty. Watson lived the city for over two years, walking without a fixed destination, letting himself be guided by what happened. The result is a series of shots that, rather than portraying Rome, question it. The Scottish-born, American-naturalized photographer, knighted and renowned for his portraits of icons such as Steve Jobs, Kate Moss, and Alfred Hitchcock, in this new project puts himself at the service of the city. He explores its edges, chases its shadows, caresses its wrinkles. Watson’s Rome is a living body, where time layers without anesthesia and identity is built between history and chaos, between the sacred and the everyday.

Roma Codex is also an artistic project that required precise direction: location scouting, meetings with subjects, supervision of the visual narrative. A work that goes beyond the technical act and builds a complex, layered, and human story. In an era where everything seems to have already been photographed, Watson manages to surprise the viewer by presenting Rome through the lens in a way we've never seen it before. His empathetic gaze explores the city with deep lenses, telling the story of the Italian capital and its endless nuances in a unique narrative. The very title of the exhibition, Roma Codex, serves as a manifesto. Codex indicates a set of signs to interpret, a language to learn. In this case, that of the most authentic Rome.