The photographs I present below were all taken in a very short period of time in the late afternoon of 8 May 2025 in Via della Conciliazione in Rome.
That afternoon I was at home, I live near St. Peter’s Square, and when I heard the bell announcing the election of Pope Leo XIV, I went down with a couple of cameras, but I couldn’t get into the square, which had been full since the morning with faithful, pilgrims, tourists, onlookers, journalists and accredited photographers.
No matter, instead of trying to get in and take the same photos as everyone else, I enjoyed photographing the crowd of people jostling and pushing their way towards the only available entrance in Via della Conciliazione, trying to see and take photos of the square in the distance.
But the sun, about to set in the evening, was still high and very bright, and as luck would have it, that day it was setting right behind the dome, dazzling everyone on the street, who were trying to protect their eyes with their hands or useless mobile phones, with a slightly surreal and vaguely post-apocalyptic effect: a beautiful metaphor.
