Some places don’t need to shout to tell a story.
Leopoldplatz Vol. I is a quiet walk through Berlin-Wedding, seen through the analog black and white photography of Emiliano Vittoriosi. It is not a classic documentary project, and it is not trying to explain Leopoldplatz from the outside. Instead, it looks at the small traces that often pass unnoticed: shadows on buildings, empty chairs, walls covered in marks, trees, street lines, abandoned objects, and moments where the city seems to pause for a second.
This publication is about presence and absence. About what people leave behind. About how a neighborhood can become a mirror, not only of the city, but also of the person walking through it.
In this interview, Emiliano talks about the emotional landscape behind Leopoldplatz Vol. I, the role of analog photography, why black and white became the natural language of the project, and how ordinary urban fragments can hold memory, silence, and meaning.
Interviewer: Leopoldplatz Vol. I feels less like a traditional photo book and more like a walk through a state of mind. How would you describe the publication?
Emiliano Vittoriosi:
For me, Leopoldplatz Vol. I is not a story with a beginning and an end. It is more like a fragment of a walk, a small piece of time. The images are not trying to explain Leopoldplatz in a documentary way. They are more like traces.
A wall, a chair, a shadow, a tree, a car, a mirror on the street. These things are ordinary, but when you look at them slowly, they start to speak. The book is about that: listening to what usually stays silent.
Interviewer: Why Leopoldplatz?
Emiliano:
Because Leopoldplatz is not just a square. It is a crossing point. People pass through it, wait there, live around it, disappear into it. It has many layers.
It can feel beautiful, rough, poetic, uncomfortable, forgotten, alive — all at the same time. I am interested in places like this because they don’t give you one clean answer. They are messy, like people.
Leopoldplatz is close to my studio, but also close to my everyday life. Photographing it became a way to understand the place, but also myself inside the place.
Interviewer: The book is entirely in black and white. Was that an aesthetic choice or an emotional one?
Emiliano:
Both. Black and white removes some distractions. It makes the image more direct, but also more mysterious.
Color often tells you what something is. Black and white asks you what something feels like.
In this work, I wanted the viewer to feel the texture of the street: the grain, the dust, the light, the hard shadows. Black and white helps me turn the city into something more mental, almost like memory.
Interviewer: Many images focus on objects or empty spaces rather than people. Why?
Emiliano:
Because people leave traces everywhere.
A chair tied to a pole says something. A broken line on the street says something. A wall full of marks says something. A mirror abandoned outside reflects the world without needing a person to stand in front of it.
I don’t always need to photograph someone’s face to talk about human presence. Sometimes absence is louder.
Interviewer: There is a strong sense of silence in the publication. Was that intentional?
Emiliano:
Yes, but not a clean silence. More like the silence after noise.
Leopoldplatz is not really silent. It has traffic, voices, tension, movement. But when I photograph, I often search for the moment where everything becomes still for one second.
That kind of silence interests me. It is not empty. It is full of things that just happened, or are about to happen.
Interviewer: The first pages are very minimal, almost empty — with a pink cover, then black, then white. Why start like that?
Emiliano:
I wanted the book to open slowly.
The pink cover feels almost soft, maybe even innocent. Then you enter a black page, then a white page. It is like passing through a door. Before entering the street, there is a pause.
For me, a book needs breathing space. Not everything has to speak immediately.
Interviewer: The photographs often show strong contrast: light cutting through buildings, dark trees, heavy shadows. What role does light play in this work?
Emiliano:
Light is the real subject.
The objects are there, but light decides how we meet them. A normal building can become dramatic because of a shadow. A tree can become almost spiritual because of the way light passes through it.
Photography is not only about what is in front of you. It is about what the light reveals and what it hides.
Interviewer: There is something almost melancholic in the images, but not in a sad way. How do you see that?
Emiliano:
Melancholy is not always sadness. Sometimes it is attention.
When you look at ordinary things with care, you realize they are temporary. The chair will be removed. The graffiti will change. The light will disappear. The person sitting there will leave.
Photography helps me hold these things for a moment. Not forever, but long enough to say: “This existed.”
Interviewer: What does analog photography give to this project that digital photography would not?
Emiliano:
Analog photography gives me distance. It slows me down.
With film, I don’t see the image immediately. I have to trust the moment. There is always a little risk, and I like that. The grain, the imperfections, the softness — they are not mistakes for me. They are part of the language.
Leopoldplatz is not polished, so the images should not feel too polished either.
Interviewer: The book is called Vol. I. Does that mean this is part of a larger project?
Emiliano:
Yes. I see it as the first chapter of a longer observation.
Leopoldplatz changes constantly. The neighborhood changes, the people change, I change. I don’t want to finish the subject too quickly. I want to return to it again and again, like someone returning to the same street and noticing different ghosts each time.
Vol. I is the first stone.
Interviewer: What do you hope people feel when they look at the publication?
Emiliano:
I hope they slow down.
I don’t need everyone to understand exactly what I felt. I would prefer that they enter the images with their own memories. Maybe they recognize a corner. Maybe they think about another city. Maybe they remember a street from childhood.
For me, a good photograph does not close meaning. It opens a small door.
Interviewer: Is this book about Berlin?
Emiliano:
Yes, but not only.
It is about Berlin, Wedding, Leopoldplatz. But it is also about the way we live inside places without always seeing them. Every city has these corners. Every person has their own Leopoldplatz somewhere.
A place that is normal from outside, but full of personal meaning once you start looking.
Interviewer: If you had to describe Leopoldplatz Vol. I in one sentence, what would you say?
Emiliano:
It is a quiet walk through the visible and invisible traces of a place.
Interviewer: And if the book had a sound?
Emiliano:
Maybe footsteps, distant traffic, a bottle rolling on the pavement, leaves moving, someone talking far away, and then a small moment of silence.
That would be the sound.
-
Emiliano Vittoriosi is a photographer, creative director, and founder of Berlin Photo Studio. Originally from Naples and based in Berlin since 2015, his work often explores everyday life, urban traces, memory, and the emotional relationship between people and places. Through analog photography, he looks for quiet fragments that reveal something deeper about the world around us.
0 comments