The city is silent: Florence and the lockdown from Coronavirus, 7 days before Phase Two

Florence silently guarded at the time of the Coronavirus in Marco Benvenuti's reportage

It is the most realistic, rough and less winking vision that we have received so far among the contributions of this series of ours, realized thanks to a handful of great Florentine photographers who agreed to tell the story of Florence at the time of the Coronavirus. 

piazza del Porcellino

The eye, finger and legs that have made these shots in a black and white that leaves no room for vagaries are those of Marco Benvenuti. Today an entrepreneur who divides his time between business, camera and music, his dream was to be a war photojournalist. Life has put in front of him other opportunities that he accepted with a lion's heart. But here he is, with his dream pressing in every moment from the lens that he handles fearlessly in front of the beauty of an eternal city difficult to bring to his knees.

Piazza Duomo with the garrisons of the Police Forces

To photograph is to recognize at the same time and in a fraction of a second a fact and the rigorous organization of visually perceived forms that express and signify that fact,' says Henri Cartier-Bresson, the father of photojournalism, and Welcome to his sequence of images of Florence - barricaded and manned in a deafening silence between April 1 and 2, 2020 - does not fail to respect this principle.

The entrance to the Uffizi Gallery empty and manned

But Cartier-Bresson, who was never very happy when his editors added text to his images, used to say: "let the photos speak for themselves and don't let people sitting behind a desk add what they haven't seen. 

The David in Piazza della Signoria and, in the background, a sign with "All will be well"

These images do not need words, a text to explain them, they are mute, because they must speak to the heart and eyes.