A photographer often starts with an idea: to record the “ugly” face of a city, for example. He travels there, the first time, and probably a second time and then a third. And the first time, he doesn’t know much about anything, not the place, not the architecture, not the people, not the streets or the culture. He wanders and takes pictures according to his plan. So did Roberto Saba, who travelled to Kyoto, Japan, to tell us something far from its temples and gardens, to tell us something about the urban side of the city, the growing one, the needed one, similar to other japanese cities seen as “mere instruments of life and work, temporary entities which serve their solidly practical purposes”(from Fosco Maraini, Ore giapponesi, new edition, Milano, Dall’Oglio, 1988). But Roberto got lost, he went back few other times, and during these times he saw something else, he was able to see beauty even if it was well hidden, to create a connection between the antique and the new. He has decided to show his work using diptychs in a project (and a self-published zine you can buy on his website) called KYOTO GA.
Roberto Saba is an Italian photographer born and based in Genova, Italy. His focus is on architecture and urban landscape.
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