Rome, Bus Stop with Street Musicians and My Life Ad, 2009
Archival Giclée Pigment Print on Archival Paper
Limited Edition of 5
40 x 53.3 in
102 x 135 cm
US $ 4,600
In this photograph, four figures sit at a Roman bus stop beneath an advertisement for a mobile phone provider that reads MY LIFE, a phrase that becomes an inadvertent caption for the unglamorous reality of two street musicians, one playing the violin, the other the guitar. On the left, a man stares ahead in stillness. At the far right, a woman in a red coat turns away in a quiet gesture of detachment. In the foreground, a car speeds past, threatening to erase the scene with its blur of metal and motion.
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In this photograph, four figures sit at a Roman bus stop beneath an advertisement for a mobile phone provider that reads MY LIFE, a phrase that becomes an inadvertent caption for the unglamorous reality of two street musicians, one playing the violin, the other the guitar. On the left, a man stares ahead in stillness. At the far right, a woman in a red coat turns away in a quiet gesture of detachment. In the foreground, a car speeds past, threatening to erase the scene with its blur of metal and motion.
The fragile, analog harmony of the musicians clashes against the speed and anonymity of the urban environment. The photograph crystallizes a fleeting coexistence between slowness and acceleration, presence and erasure—a hidden reality revealed by Ragazzini’s intuitive vision and sensitivity to the quiet fractures of urban existence. He renders the figures with painterly precision, the etched textures of the instruments contrasting with the billboard’s flat corporate gloss and the faceless velocity of the car.
The oversized promise of personalization (MY LIFE) looms ironically, as the image speaks instead to marginality and invisibility. With quiet theatricality, the composition recalls the layered tension of photomontage and the psychological distance of German New Objectivity artists. Beauty flickers briefly, nearly lost in the everyday rush.
In Waiting for Godot, Enzo Ragazzini reveals the quiet dramas of urban life, where public spaces become stages of fatigue, isolation, and longing. Turning his lens on people waiting in Rome, he captures the collision between real bodies and glossy fantasies; moments where individuals remain disconnected beneath advertisements promising beauty, success, and a life just out of reach.
