After graduating in 2009 from art and cinema school, Alessio Trerotoli of Rome began travelling through Europe and the Americas. “I didn’t quite know who I was,” he says, “but my camera was with me.” While walking through the streets and alleys of Paris, he suddenly found inspiration. Photography happened by chance. So did gallery exhibitions, from 2010 onwards.

In his series “Urban Melodies”, Alessio has superimposed different images to create, what he believes, are “abstract representations” of urban landscapes and contemporary life. He captures the architecture and the streets of big cities like Rome, New York, Paris and Berlin and rearranges the shots to give a dizzying effect. The final product displays movement and activity, like a rapid film strip. 

“By juxtaposing different images,” explains the photographer, “my aim to show an usual image in a conceptual way, where everything is duplicated, the lights and the structures multiply and build a new vision of urban life.” He has won several prizes for his work and in 2012, published his first book, “Fuori dalla caverna” (Out of the Cave), with notes and pictures of his travels.

The art of superimposition requires creativity, fantasy, curiosity and, most of all, lots of patience – Alessio adds. “Sometimes I finish a new “Urban Melody” in thirty minutes, sometimes I work on it for two or three days, looking for the right combination of images. It’s like a puzzle, an enigma to solve – a solution exists, the right combination exists, but we have to find it. There are no preset rules, only the rules that we decide to impose.”

He subscribes to a fascinating theory of art. Through his photography, he says, he would like “to multiply his existence.” “Every photographer is obsessed with time and space,” Alessio continues, “I guess, so I would live on the walls of other people, in their libraries, in their houses, during my life and after. I can’t be everywhere and I can’t travel everywhere, but I hope that my pictures can do it for me.”

Alessio Trerotoli’s website is www.alessiotrerotoli.it. He is active on Facebook (www.facebook.com/AlessioTrerotoliPhotographer), Twitter (@TrerotoliPhoto), Instagram (www.instagram.com/urbanmelod) and 500px (500px.com/alessiotrerotoli). You can also follow his blog “Living is Easy with One Eye Closed“.

Images used with permission.