My name is Jacopo Santini. Born in Florence, Italy. Active initially as archeological photographer, then in the documentary field. Teacher of photography for an american academy of art in Firenze.
This is a selection from a project concerning the quarter of Livorno, a town on the coast of Tuscany, named “Guglia”, id est “spire”, from the obelisk dedicated to Leopold of Lorraine, Granduke of Tuscany. The quarter was entirely reshaped during the fascism era and the position of the buildings, in the typical architectural style of the period that somehow reminds the De Chirico “Metaphisical” paintings, if seen from above forms the word “DUX”, duce. The quarter, whose buildings belongs to the so called institute for popular housing, is living a long lasting situation of desease, even if not a gram of the spontaneous liveliness of the city is lost. The project is a work in progress and the pictures attached represent the beginning of a documentation about what remains (very much indeed) of the settlements created from nothing during the fascism, under the Mussolini’s obsession of being recognized as a demiurge.