The Watchers
As far back as 62 BC, Rome possessed over one million denizens, though the habitable area of the city was quite small. For millennia her compact overpopulation has existed and, as a consequence, Romans are hardwired to live in close proximity with one another. Inspired reading the history of this megalopolis, I have made images of old Roman edifices and sites, sometimes in fragments, deluged by the ever flow of humanity.
The quantity of milling humans from all over the world even now is not strange to these ancient stones, an anonymous public repeatedly eddying about them. As spectators, silent observers, stoic witnesses, these structures remain mum to impenetrable histories, to generation upon generation of beings, rushing, stirring about, as water runs in a river, always moving, never the same, always the same.
Liese A Ricketts
Chicago, 2016
To learn more about Liese Ricketts please visit her page atLiese Ricketts.
I often feel the same way about visiting places of historic endurance – you can feel the imprint of lives and souls emanate from the very walls, roads and spaces. I love how your photos reflect this. Rome is amazing as is the history it has witnessed. If there was only a way to make walls talk – the stories we would learn!!
Thank you.
It’s a magnificent photographic revival…where people of another era haunts strikingly the places of their past living places.
How very interesting to be reminded that time has marched with people for a very long time and many historic places still bear thier footprint if we look hard eneough. They have a story. Beautifully done!
Your inspiration for these images is absoloutly amazing. Just the way that you see a world and make it your own respresents the quintescential potency of a photographer. I love what you have created here and I’d love to understand this creative process.
I lived in Rome for a few years and I will never forget the incredible energy there. Walking the streets, you really can feel the imprints of so many lives from so long ago… These photos are just wow. Haunting and beautiful. Awesome work, thank you for sharing!
The phrase “a picture is worth a million words” is true the pictures you have posted are a prime example of this. When I visit to New Orleans the vibe was very cultural because of the history still alive being expressed through the walls, the people, the aroma. It does not matter how much time goes by the atmosphere of New Orleans and any other historical community will always remain as it was grown up to be.
We in India have a day for praying for the peace of our ancestors. Found it similar. Great