Albert Watson
A Rome Codex

29.05__03.08.2025

Palazzo Esposizioni Roma will be hosting A Rome Codex, the largest photographic exhibition ever produced in Italy exploring the work of Albert Watson, one of the most iconic photographers of our time.
 

Promoted by Rome the Capital City's Cultural Affairs Department and the Azienda Speciale Palaexpo, produced and organised by the Azienda Speciale Palaexpo with the Studio F.P., the exhibition, curated by Clara Tosi Pamphili, takes a powerful and intuitive photographic look at the city of Rome, delving deeply behind its traditional visual stereotypes.

Albert Watson A Rome Codex29 May__3 August 2025
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Albert Watson, Carlotta Gamba, Actor, Rome, 2024 / Albert Watson, Cast of Apollo Giustiniani, Villa Medici - Académie de France, Rome, 2024. © Albert Watson

New York photographer Albert Watson challenges the conventional depictions of the Eternal City to provide a contemporary anthropological narrative of its most authentic quintessence.

In a career spanning over five decades, from 1970 to the present, Watson has made a name for himself as one of the influential and prolific photographers on the international scene. Combing art, fashion and commercial photography with unparalleled depth and versatility, he has created icons that have carved out a place for themselves in our collective imagination.

200 photographs, a city to decipher

The exhibition showcases 200 black-and-white and colour photographs, often in large formats, displayed in the three main halls of the Palazzo Esposizioni Roma. The images are arranged on the basis of an instinctive rather than a thematic rationale, in order to offer visitors a freer and more contemporary approach to their understanding and enjoyment.

In the vast exhibition space, intimate and spontaneous moments of humanity sit side by side with the imposing architecture and history of the city, in a game of echoes between Rome and the people who live in it and define it.

Albert Watson dispenses with all hierarchy: a portrait, a landscape, an interior, an anonymous face and a celebrity all coexist with the same narrative intensity.

Taken as a whole, Roma Codex offers a visual compass that is at once instinctive and meticulous, to decipher a city rich in contrasts.