Michael Wilkins
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Night photograph of the floodlit Vittoriano monument in Rome, its colonnade and bronze statues bright against a black sky, with long white and red car light trails streaking across the road in front.

Traffic at the Altar

Rome, Italy · September 2021

1D X Mark II, 28 millimetres, f 22, 20 seconds, ISO 100

Romans call it the typewriter. They are not being affectionate.

The Vittoriano at night, floodlit hard against a completely black sky, with a long enough exposure to pull the traffic in front into solid ribbons. Romans have never forgiven this building — it is universally known as the typewriter, or the wedding cake, and it was dropped onto the side of the Capitoline at the cost of a good deal of medieval city. At night, lit like this, it is undeniably a spectacle.

Part of Rome, a series.