When photographer Sam Wright arrived in Naples for the first time last summer, he walked the same 10-kilometre route around the city, two days in a row. The journey took him through the streets, its markets and down to the beaches of Saint Lucia. In the Posillipo quarter, Sam watched as teenagers launched themselves off the jagged rocks of historic ruins into the crystal clear waters. “As I spoke with locals and made connections with the people I photographed, they told me of new and interesting places,” he says, something that helped him find more subjects to photograph.
“In my practice, I’m always looking for emotion and atmosphere in people and places,” Sam says. “From first arriving in Naples, I could tell this was [something the city had] in abundance. Your senses are constantly engaged; whether the chaos and theatre of street life, the calming noise of the Tyrrhenian Sea or the smells of cooking volcanic soil rich produce in the streets.”
The resulting photographs Sam shot make up The City of the Sun, his new photo book which will be unveiled at Photo London 2023, published by New Dimension. It captures bare skin and sea — embodying the “calm and tranquillity” of the city — as well as the “die hard character and devotion” of football fans and Catholic followers who both share the Italian coastal spot. There are those aforementioned teenagers crawling over rock faces and bronzed older men sitting on deck chairs soaking in the sun. But as Sam explores the inner city’s geography, we catch glimpses of the frantic streets too: women on vespas, market stalls and nuns shielding themselves in the shade.
The book’s foreword by arts writer Gilda Bruno examines the city’s historical reputation as a place “spellbinding and potent”, a place where — within the throngs of bodies — someone can experience real peace and a sense of emotional solitude. It’s no surprise artists like Oscar Wilde, Hans Christian Andersen and Pablo Neruda found it so inspiring.
Though the archetypes of Naples’ people feel like relics from an older, slower time, Sam’s work sees him capture these people in the frenetic heat of the modern moment. “I usually find it easier to make a portrait in these preliminary moments of meeting someone, whilst your view of them is new and exciting,” he says. By encountering them, “I felt like [I was experiencing] the quintessential parts of Italy and Italian culture boiled down to its most pure and concentrated form.”
‘The City and the Sun’ is published by New Dimension and is available to buy here.
Credits
All images Sam Wright, courtesy of New Dimension