Charles Baudelaire described walking down city streets in the 1850's as an adventure, more dramatic than any play, richer in ideas than any book. One should become, he suggested, a Flâneur, (a stroller or saunterer). Flâneurs don't have any practical goals in mind, aren't walking to get something, or to go somewhere. What flâneurs are doing is looking. Opening their eyes and ears to the scene around them, wondering about the lives of those they pass, constructing narratives about the houses, eavesdropping on conversations, studying how people dress, and street life in general. Flâneurs relish in what they learn and discover.
Excerpt from The Art of Looking Sideways by Alan Fletcher
These are a few spreads taken from my last few months of traveling around Italy.
