When you get to a certain age, holidays should be a time for rest and relaxation. So this summer I decided to backpack from Rome to Munich over 3 weeks with an old film camera. The robust Ricoh KR5 with a few K-mount lenses was the kit of choice with a Vivitar V3000 body as backup although this became quickly irrelevant when the back of the Vivtar fell off in transit.
I did have a digital option – a Fuji X20 compact and a Huawei phone – but the aim was to capture the holiday on monochrome film and with no specific photographic objective in mind other than always having the camera with me. So first stop was a few days in Rome. While with some cities it’s often a struggle to convey a visual identity, Rome has no such problems exuding a certain cool. And on every street, you’ll find scooters – Vespas.
It’s worth mentioning that the traffic in Rome is bloody awful and this pale middle-aged northern European would look ridiculous wobbling around the Roman vias with a well reduced life expectancy. Unlike the natives, however who have a natural born ability to safely navigate the eternal city while remaining the smartest looking people in Europe.
Photos shot on the Ricoh KR5 on Oriental Seagull 100.
