Matilde Damele's Intimate Portrait of New York

New York is a city that never stops moving. But what happens when someone chooses to slow down and simply observe? This question lies at the heart of the exhibition dedicated to Matilde Damele at the Museum of Rome in Trastevere. Through a selection of black-and-white photographs, the artist portrays the city not as a landscape of skyscrapers and bright lights, but as a place shaped by encounters, quiet moments and everyday gestures. After moving to New York in the late 1990s, Damele spent fifteen years exploring the city with her trusted analogue camera. Her photographs take viewers through neighbourhoods such as Brooklyn, the Bronx and Coney Island, capturing ordinary people and fleeting moments that often go unnoticed. The result is a surprisingly intimate vision of New York, where every image tells the story of an emotion rather than simply documenting a place. The exhibition concludes with a series of photographs taken in Rome, around Porta Maggiore and its surrounding neighbourhoods, showing how Damele's distinctive gaze can transform any city into an inner journey. It is an invitation to slow down, look more carefully and discover the hidden poetry of everyday life.