That decade was special to me and I was also in Rome then — when it snowed. All negatives destroyed in a flood last year:( so I can't share any with you. Thanks for taking us with you.
I have so much I can write about these photos. First of all: They are amazing. Especially the ones from Piazza di Spagna. Not only do they show a truly beautiful part of Rome which unfortunately no longer exists in the same way for many reasons. As you mention you are no longer allowed to sit on the Spanish Steps. It has been turned into yet another boring monument, which you can only walk on. I remember sitting there as a teen and in my twenties together with friends, drinking wine and chatting with boys. Now it is all white and clean and polished with no life. The first photo in your post also means a lot to me. For three years I worked at the end of that street - Via Omero - at the Danish Institute, so I have walked past the Dutch Institute many times coming from Villa Borghese and going to work. When I saw your photo with the two carabinieri I recognized the shop sign where it says Da Paola, but I couldn’t remember where I had seen it. Then I read the post and realized, that it was the Pantheon in the back. For one year I lived as an au pair in Via del Seminario right next to Piazza della Rotonda (back in 1994), so of course I must have seen that shop many times. Rome holds a very special place in my heart. I have lived there many times and for a total of more than ten years. However I have only been back for shorter stays since I left it for Florence in 2011, and I must say that it seems to me, it has changed a lot and not for the better. Your post was truly a wonderful trip to my past and the photos are beautiful.
Wow, thank you for your beautiful reply, which is a story in itself! Thank you for subscribing too, I welcome the opportunity to see what you’re doing and maybe discuss things that come up. Let’s stay in touch!
Hi Vincent. As a child I had lived in Rome for the entire year in 1968. In my case your story and photographs of not so distant 1984 brought back sweet memories.
I love your photographs and storytelling and I admire your effort of documenting the past. Carabinieri are something!
For someone who witnessed pre-digital age, today when I see countless fellow humans on streets occupied in nothing else but their smartphones, I too wonder “is it just me or people became less interesting, certainly less snap-worthy?”
I miss those days for that reason alone. Street-life was more interesting. People interacted with everything around them; they used every sense donated by mother nature to absorb every bit of a brief and precious life they have in its fullest.
Hi Ergun, thank you for your kind comment and subscribing! I understand why you have the thoughts you expressed here about the changes in social behavior that took place from the ‘pre-digital age’ and our present times.
Technology and the way we have embraced it certainly are the main reasons for this change, hence the title of my post. If you liked this one, there two more about Rome that might interest you too, with many more photos.
I have very shortly taken a look at tour posts and have noticed your outspokenness in some photographic choices. I’ll certainly have another look at them and look forward to exchanges with you.
Vincent, I am thrilled to have found this set. I don't know how I missed it the first time. I would have been on Substack when you published it! Anyway, the two motorcycle cops are genius. Super job! I did not know there was a Dutch Institute. I have been to a few of the other 'institutes', but not the Dutch one. I will have to go looking for it next time!
Thank you, Søren! I thought you had seen it, or was that the second installment? Anyway, I’m happy to see you’re enthusiastic! I will never forget that moment with those cops, it was one of the quickest shots I made in Rome, and it came out much better than I thought it would.
Very nice! It’s so cool to find old negatives like that. My favorite is the shot of the carabinieri.
No surprise that Rome has changed in 40+ years, and, yes, phones are as omnipresent as they are most other places. But I think the soul of the city remains intact.
Thanks, Eric, for your kind comments! No, I don’t use film at this moment. I still have thousands of negatives and even slides to scan and I like the outcome so far, which is what you’ve seen in this post. In the meantime I shoot digitally, which I find very satisfying, in a different way though. I don’t mean the ‘slowing down’ that many erroneously think is a difference between analogue and digital. I’m talking about the amount of control the photographer has over the result in digital, which requires thought and skill too, but it lacks the ‘romantic’ notion of not knowing what you’ve done (wrong) right away.
I shoot so much, I can hardly keep up with the editing. I still love analogue photography. The carabinieri shot was probably my first ‘street’ photo I was proud of.
There was a time when film photos still felt more “authentic” than digital ones but that’s clearly not the case any longer. I am not a gifted photographer like you and @søren k. harbel and a few others I’ve seen on Substack. But I do enjoy taking photos and although I don’t think I’ve taken a photo with film in 20+ years, I still have two film cameras I can’t let go of (a late 1990s-era Leica and an old Zenit from the 1970s or ‘80s that I bought on the street in Moscow in the Gorbachov years). In a worst-case scenario, either could be used as a weapon if there’s a break-in!
Thank you very much for the mention. I do think you should go get a roll of film and give it a go. Worst case, you have spent 20 euros on a series of black negs. Best case….. you never know, until you try!! 😀
Hi Eric, if you love photography and live in Rome (!), pick up one of those cameras, have someone check if the foam seal is still ok, run a film through it and send it to a quality photo lab. Then you know if you can work with that camera. If not, a new digital or a second-hand (analogue) camera is easily (and affordably) available. Your job probably involves some traveling as well, I’d say try it and see how you like it!
Fantastic set of photos! I’m glad you were able to salvage your scratched negatives by scanning them. - I can’t believe the amount of people that were at the Spanish Steps! I visited in October 2018 and saw nothing like those crowds, thankfully! We were able to enjoy the city and locales without an insane amount of tourists.
Thank you, Alicia! It was quite a job to restore those negatives, but I have ‘unscratched’ digital files now. During my stay in Rome in 1984 there were always crowds at the Spanish steps, but the photo you refer to was taken on a saturday afternoon, maybe the busiest time of the week. When I see recent videos of Rome, the number of tourists seems to have gone down a bit, I wonder why.
I have fond memories of Olympus cameras. Though I never owned one, we sold them at the shop I worked back in the days. OM1 & OM2 respectively. Small and compact is my most observant memory. I was exposed to many brand and models back then so I wouldn't choose a favorite--I had to be able to sell any one of the brands to customer without bias toward one brand or the other. Though I was often asked "which would you choose." I'd do a compare and contrast on two brands to advise the customer to have them consider what's best for them.
Anyways... It's a bit confusing to look at the photos and not be quite sure what city they're in. My Americanism is showing. Early to mid twentieth century European architecture within the confines of smaller streets and alleyways are difficult to discern. I do really gravitate to the photo from the top of the Spanish Steps, the sense of scale and mass of humanity within the confines of a small city.
To reminisce with the aid of photographs present an ultimate joy that's quite indescribable. Just utter joy to travel back in time to a smell, a feeling, a sense of time and intrigue.
Thanks Kenneth, for your elaborate reply, I really appreciate that! Olympus of course isn’t better than any other brand, but in film days I liked how the cameras handled, and the Zuiko lenses were very good. I still own a few Oly film cameras, the OM-2N being my favorite of them all. They are compact for sure, and even in the heat of Rome, I hardly noticed carrying one around all day. I still use a (digital) Olympus, but not for all my photography.
I have sold exclusive hifi equipment for a number of years, so advising the customer (who also asked me what to choose often) in a way he/she would have the best option to suit their taste (and wallet) is something I know from my own experience.
Rome is a bit confusing in the way you describe, there are many sides to it, so it’s not because you’re American per se that you notice. The photo at the top of the Spanish steps was a moment I enjoyed immensely. I felt part of a greater whole, something I usually don’t experience at all when I’m in a crowd. By the way, Rome is, to us Europeans, by no means a small city. But I understand, it’s nothing like NY. Making new files for the article was like reliving some of the scenes, and at times a sensory experience indeed.
Thanks so much, Ralph! It means a lot to me to receive such a comment from a fellow photographer I respect and who’s been round the block too. Looking at these photos myself now, over 40 years later, I can see there was a spark in me then that’s still there now (somewhere deep inside), but the forward mindset with which I made these, is something I lack nowadays. I know it’s ‘only normal’ to change, and my skills have kept growing in the meantime, but maybe my photography has become a bit ‘too safe’, even if I get a few shots right now and then. I wonder how you look back on your own early work. What kind of development do you see?
This resonates with me. I've been thinking about this a little while looking back at photos from yesteryear, I find some of them better than I remember (also, some that are worse!). My tastes have changed over the years, hopefully somewhat broader these days (I suppose my new enthusiasm for b+w that hadn't really surfaced until the last few years would be an example). That 'safeness' I sometimes feel, though I've managed to occasionally photograph subjects in more recent years that I might not have in my younger days (music festivals for one). Maybe all these talents are there, latent within, right from the beginning, it just takes the right stimulus that comes with years and greater experience for them to blossom. Just a my couple of pennies worth.
It certainly is! Obviously in these conversations we've already moved to the things that are somewhat less visible, and I enjoy being able to have them at all. As you probably will have noticed also, there is a lot about photography that makes it more than a 'hobby', certainly for older chaps like ourselves :)
This was a lovely read, Vincent! A real blast from the past, even though I see Rome was pretty crowded in 1984 already😅. I've only been there once, in 2002, very much without a smartphone but with an analogue Olympus!
Thanks so much, Suzy! Glad you've enjoyed the story and the Pantheon photo. I'm certainly going to check your work out too; it's great there are so many photographers on Substack. Thanks again!
Thank you, Frank, for reading my post and commenting! Having your negatives destroyed must have been a terrible experience, but that flood probably had even worse consequences. I'm glad you could go down memory lane a bit seeing my photos.
Having been to Rome a few years ago, I can say that it doesn't look like this anymore, as it got overcrowded with tourists. I remember my disappointment when I reached the Spanish steps. So many inconsiderate people, throwing rubbish on the ground, climbing on everything so they would take a photo.
Yet, the history was present everywhere I went, and particularly as I roamed on random streets, where the locals were "in charge". It's a beautiful city to walk through, and I wish they'd pedestrianise more streets.
Vincent, I’d also be curious if a photograph of the same shot would show any difference in the way that people look (and maybe even look down) into their phones. Good question here.
Hi Thalia, thank you for your comment! Assuming you refer to the photos taken at the Spanish steps, I’m pretty sure that the same shot would paint a totally different image of people; there would be less of an outgoing behavior, and a lot of looking down at smartphone screens going on. In the photos I made in 1984, the world was so different from what it is now. There was a sentiment of conviction, maybe even faith, about the direction the world was going in. What are the chances of something like the “live aid” concerts taking place in today's world? We are now more technologically advanced, but what good does that do in the world around us? Most of us crawl into their ‘own’ online space and have stopped largely to participate in what happens around us, shy away from personal contact as if every stranger is a threat, while we are being watched by surveillance cameras. Sorry for the rant, but your comment triggered this sentiment, so I guess it was indeed a good question.
You have a point here, Vincent. I do sometimes wonder if certain places should ban the use of phones upon entering. Much like they’re not allowed in the movie theaters now? Not sure if it’ll do much though.
In public places that would be impossible, and even if it were possible, banning something never works, the result will be the opposite of what you intended to happen. I think we’re witnessing already there are lots of people who are aware of the negative aspects of endloss scrolling and actively strive to spend less time online.
hey, this is cool! I’ve been living here for almost 3 years, and it’s nice to see the massive crowds were the same 40 years ago. Disappointingly I have yet to see an electric guitar on the Spanish Steps, though. Also there’s a lot more graffiti now (for better or worse)
Thanks, Constantin! I guess more than just the presence of smartphones has changed; too bad about the graffiti, I noticed the absence of it when I visited and interpreted it as a form of respect of the Romans for their city and its history. I’m planning more posts like this, hope you’ll check it out too.
That decade was special to me and I was also in Rome then — when it snowed. All negatives destroyed in a flood last year:( so I can't share any with you. Thanks for taking us with you.
I have so much I can write about these photos. First of all: They are amazing. Especially the ones from Piazza di Spagna. Not only do they show a truly beautiful part of Rome which unfortunately no longer exists in the same way for many reasons. As you mention you are no longer allowed to sit on the Spanish Steps. It has been turned into yet another boring monument, which you can only walk on. I remember sitting there as a teen and in my twenties together with friends, drinking wine and chatting with boys. Now it is all white and clean and polished with no life. The first photo in your post also means a lot to me. For three years I worked at the end of that street - Via Omero - at the Danish Institute, so I have walked past the Dutch Institute many times coming from Villa Borghese and going to work. When I saw your photo with the two carabinieri I recognized the shop sign where it says Da Paola, but I couldn’t remember where I had seen it. Then I read the post and realized, that it was the Pantheon in the back. For one year I lived as an au pair in Via del Seminario right next to Piazza della Rotonda (back in 1994), so of course I must have seen that shop many times. Rome holds a very special place in my heart. I have lived there many times and for a total of more than ten years. However I have only been back for shorter stays since I left it for Florence in 2011, and I must say that it seems to me, it has changed a lot and not for the better. Your post was truly a wonderful trip to my past and the photos are beautiful.
Wow, thank you for your beautiful reply, which is a story in itself! Thank you for subscribing too, I welcome the opportunity to see what you’re doing and maybe discuss things that come up. Let’s stay in touch!
That picture of the carabinieri is magnificent!
Thank you so much, Xavi! I just started working on part IV of the ‘Rome travelogue’ already.
Hi Vincent. As a child I had lived in Rome for the entire year in 1968. In my case your story and photographs of not so distant 1984 brought back sweet memories.
I love your photographs and storytelling and I admire your effort of documenting the past. Carabinieri are something!
For someone who witnessed pre-digital age, today when I see countless fellow humans on streets occupied in nothing else but their smartphones, I too wonder “is it just me or people became less interesting, certainly less snap-worthy?”
I miss those days for that reason alone. Street-life was more interesting. People interacted with everything around them; they used every sense donated by mother nature to absorb every bit of a brief and precious life they have in its fullest.
Hi Ergun, thank you for your kind comment and subscribing! I understand why you have the thoughts you expressed here about the changes in social behavior that took place from the ‘pre-digital age’ and our present times.
Technology and the way we have embraced it certainly are the main reasons for this change, hence the title of my post. If you liked this one, there two more about Rome that might interest you too, with many more photos.
I have very shortly taken a look at tour posts and have noticed your outspokenness in some photographic choices. I’ll certainly have another look at them and look forward to exchanges with you.
Vincent, I am thrilled to have found this set. I don't know how I missed it the first time. I would have been on Substack when you published it! Anyway, the two motorcycle cops are genius. Super job! I did not know there was a Dutch Institute. I have been to a few of the other 'institutes', but not the Dutch one. I will have to go looking for it next time!
Thank you, Søren! I thought you had seen it, or was that the second installment? Anyway, I’m happy to see you’re enthusiastic! I will never forget that moment with those cops, it was one of the quickest shots I made in Rome, and it came out much better than I thought it would.
Very nice! It’s so cool to find old negatives like that. My favorite is the shot of the carabinieri.
No surprise that Rome has changed in 40+ years, and, yes, phones are as omnipresent as they are most other places. But I think the soul of the city remains intact.
Do you still use film?
Thanks, Eric, for your kind comments! No, I don’t use film at this moment. I still have thousands of negatives and even slides to scan and I like the outcome so far, which is what you’ve seen in this post. In the meantime I shoot digitally, which I find very satisfying, in a different way though. I don’t mean the ‘slowing down’ that many erroneously think is a difference between analogue and digital. I’m talking about the amount of control the photographer has over the result in digital, which requires thought and skill too, but it lacks the ‘romantic’ notion of not knowing what you’ve done (wrong) right away.
I shoot so much, I can hardly keep up with the editing. I still love analogue photography. The carabinieri shot was probably my first ‘street’ photo I was proud of.
There was a time when film photos still felt more “authentic” than digital ones but that’s clearly not the case any longer. I am not a gifted photographer like you and @søren k. harbel and a few others I’ve seen on Substack. But I do enjoy taking photos and although I don’t think I’ve taken a photo with film in 20+ years, I still have two film cameras I can’t let go of (a late 1990s-era Leica and an old Zenit from the 1970s or ‘80s that I bought on the street in Moscow in the Gorbachov years). In a worst-case scenario, either could be used as a weapon if there’s a break-in!
Thank you very much for the mention. I do think you should go get a roll of film and give it a go. Worst case, you have spent 20 euros on a series of black negs. Best case….. you never know, until you try!! 😀
Hi Eric, if you love photography and live in Rome (!), pick up one of those cameras, have someone check if the foam seal is still ok, run a film through it and send it to a quality photo lab. Then you know if you can work with that camera. If not, a new digital or a second-hand (analogue) camera is easily (and affordably) available. Your job probably involves some traveling as well, I’d say try it and see how you like it!
Fantastic set of photos! I’m glad you were able to salvage your scratched negatives by scanning them. - I can’t believe the amount of people that were at the Spanish Steps! I visited in October 2018 and saw nothing like those crowds, thankfully! We were able to enjoy the city and locales without an insane amount of tourists.
Thank you, Alicia! It was quite a job to restore those negatives, but I have ‘unscratched’ digital files now. During my stay in Rome in 1984 there were always crowds at the Spanish steps, but the photo you refer to was taken on a saturday afternoon, maybe the busiest time of the week. When I see recent videos of Rome, the number of tourists seems to have gone down a bit, I wonder why.
I have fond memories of Olympus cameras. Though I never owned one, we sold them at the shop I worked back in the days. OM1 & OM2 respectively. Small and compact is my most observant memory. I was exposed to many brand and models back then so I wouldn't choose a favorite--I had to be able to sell any one of the brands to customer without bias toward one brand or the other. Though I was often asked "which would you choose." I'd do a compare and contrast on two brands to advise the customer to have them consider what's best for them.
Anyways... It's a bit confusing to look at the photos and not be quite sure what city they're in. My Americanism is showing. Early to mid twentieth century European architecture within the confines of smaller streets and alleyways are difficult to discern. I do really gravitate to the photo from the top of the Spanish Steps, the sense of scale and mass of humanity within the confines of a small city.
To reminisce with the aid of photographs present an ultimate joy that's quite indescribable. Just utter joy to travel back in time to a smell, a feeling, a sense of time and intrigue.
Cheers!
Thanks Kenneth, for your elaborate reply, I really appreciate that! Olympus of course isn’t better than any other brand, but in film days I liked how the cameras handled, and the Zuiko lenses were very good. I still own a few Oly film cameras, the OM-2N being my favorite of them all. They are compact for sure, and even in the heat of Rome, I hardly noticed carrying one around all day. I still use a (digital) Olympus, but not for all my photography.
I have sold exclusive hifi equipment for a number of years, so advising the customer (who also asked me what to choose often) in a way he/she would have the best option to suit their taste (and wallet) is something I know from my own experience.
Rome is a bit confusing in the way you describe, there are many sides to it, so it’s not because you’re American per se that you notice. The photo at the top of the Spanish steps was a moment I enjoyed immensely. I felt part of a greater whole, something I usually don’t experience at all when I’m in a crowd. By the way, Rome is, to us Europeans, by no means a small city. But I understand, it’s nothing like NY. Making new files for the article was like reliving some of the scenes, and at times a sensory experience indeed.
I love the photo of the motorcycle cops.
Superb images, spot on timing. I've never really been a 'street shooter' but I can appreciate well captured moments, as here. Super.
Thanks so much, Ralph! It means a lot to me to receive such a comment from a fellow photographer I respect and who’s been round the block too. Looking at these photos myself now, over 40 years later, I can see there was a spark in me then that’s still there now (somewhere deep inside), but the forward mindset with which I made these, is something I lack nowadays. I know it’s ‘only normal’ to change, and my skills have kept growing in the meantime, but maybe my photography has become a bit ‘too safe’, even if I get a few shots right now and then. I wonder how you look back on your own early work. What kind of development do you see?
This resonates with me. I've been thinking about this a little while looking back at photos from yesteryear, I find some of them better than I remember (also, some that are worse!). My tastes have changed over the years, hopefully somewhat broader these days (I suppose my new enthusiasm for b+w that hadn't really surfaced until the last few years would be an example). That 'safeness' I sometimes feel, though I've managed to occasionally photograph subjects in more recent years that I might not have in my younger days (music festivals for one). Maybe all these talents are there, latent within, right from the beginning, it just takes the right stimulus that comes with years and greater experience for them to blossom. Just a my couple of pennies worth.
By the way, I appreciate the compliment, thank you. It's good to have conversations such as these.
It certainly is! Obviously in these conversations we've already moved to the things that are somewhat less visible, and I enjoy being able to have them at all. As you probably will have noticed also, there is a lot about photography that makes it more than a 'hobby', certainly for older chaps like ourselves :)
This was a lovely read, Vincent! A real blast from the past, even though I see Rome was pretty crowded in 1984 already😅. I've only been there once, in 2002, very much without a smartphone but with an analogue Olympus!
Really love the shot inside the Panthenon🖤🙌🏻!
Thanks so much, Suzy! Glad you've enjoyed the story and the Pantheon photo. I'm certainly going to check your work out too; it's great there are so many photographers on Substack. Thanks again!
Thank you, Frank, for reading my post and commenting! Having your negatives destroyed must have been a terrible experience, but that flood probably had even worse consequences. I'm glad you could go down memory lane a bit seeing my photos.
Amazing shots!
Having been to Rome a few years ago, I can say that it doesn't look like this anymore, as it got overcrowded with tourists. I remember my disappointment when I reached the Spanish steps. So many inconsiderate people, throwing rubbish on the ground, climbing on everything so they would take a photo.
Yet, the history was present everywhere I went, and particularly as I roamed on random streets, where the locals were "in charge". It's a beautiful city to walk through, and I wish they'd pedestrianise more streets.
Vincent, I’d also be curious if a photograph of the same shot would show any difference in the way that people look (and maybe even look down) into their phones. Good question here.
Hi Thalia, thank you for your comment! Assuming you refer to the photos taken at the Spanish steps, I’m pretty sure that the same shot would paint a totally different image of people; there would be less of an outgoing behavior, and a lot of looking down at smartphone screens going on. In the photos I made in 1984, the world was so different from what it is now. There was a sentiment of conviction, maybe even faith, about the direction the world was going in. What are the chances of something like the “live aid” concerts taking place in today's world? We are now more technologically advanced, but what good does that do in the world around us? Most of us crawl into their ‘own’ online space and have stopped largely to participate in what happens around us, shy away from personal contact as if every stranger is a threat, while we are being watched by surveillance cameras. Sorry for the rant, but your comment triggered this sentiment, so I guess it was indeed a good question.
You have a point here, Vincent. I do sometimes wonder if certain places should ban the use of phones upon entering. Much like they’re not allowed in the movie theaters now? Not sure if it’ll do much though.
In public places that would be impossible, and even if it were possible, banning something never works, the result will be the opposite of what you intended to happen. I think we’re witnessing already there are lots of people who are aware of the negative aspects of endloss scrolling and actively strive to spend less time online.
It’s certainly time for a movement. 🙏
hey, this is cool! I’ve been living here for almost 3 years, and it’s nice to see the massive crowds were the same 40 years ago. Disappointingly I have yet to see an electric guitar on the Spanish Steps, though. Also there’s a lot more graffiti now (for better or worse)
Thanks, Constantin! I guess more than just the presence of smartphones has changed; too bad about the graffiti, I noticed the absence of it when I visited and interpreted it as a form of respect of the Romans for their city and its history. I’m planning more posts like this, hope you’ll check it out too.