Stop Motion. Florence and the Coronavirus, just before Phase Two

The motionless and silent Florence at the time of the Coronavirus seen by Alessandro Bencini's lens

In a few days these images will be alone and now a memory... Florence empty, the squares, the avenues, the promenades, the alleys wrapped in an unreal silence.

A deserted Florentine lungarno

But above all, Florence is still, motionless, without people walking, tourists walking with their noses up, scooters, cars and taxis speeding, bicycles running.

Santa Maria Novella Central Station

A strange destiny one might say: Florence, which a century ago was the heart of the utopia of the movement, now faces its opposite (who knows what Giovanni Papini, Ardengo Soffici and Primo Conti would think if they could see all this).

The immobility along the city's boulevards

The absence of movement is what leaps to the eyes of Alessandro Bencini, the author of these shots of Florence at the time of the Coronavirus. He has dedicated his whole life to photographing the great movement of Italian fashion, from the roaring eighties to the present day, with that enveloping lens that caresses clothes, accessories, jewellery with a soft and sophisticated gaze in a harmonious and continuous fluctuation of sets, lights, backdrops, make-up artists, models and assistants in his studio that looks like a lair of wonders.

Health personnel on the streets of Florence

Bencini is the signature of many fashion shootings also for Firenze Made in Tuscany, since the first issue... 

The entrance to the House of Dante

But today, we thank him for this 'out label' contribution with which, for once, for us, for the exceptionality of the historical moment and for the love he feels for his city, he has lent himself to shoot the reportage of a Florence so far from its floating world. Waiting for Florence to move as it did before, and even better than before.