Short story 2: election garbage

When it is election time in Roma it is impossible not to notice it. Electoral posters have the lion share. The appear everywhere, on authorized boards or…. well, just wherever there is some space. One over the other, and sometimes it is a question of hours, if not minutes before another layer is added. Often the boards collapse under the weight of so much paper. Speed and volume are the essence to control critical areas, such as Piazzale degli Eroi (quite a depressing space but where there is a lot of car traffic)… Efficiency is increased by inventions such “il rullo” (the roll) which apparently only two companies in the area really master.

Interestingly the main culprits of the illegal posting seem to be the candidates of the parties who defend “legality” at all costs, right and extreme right… Many of such candidates do not mind show their face on garbage containers. Other prefer sign posts, phone boxes. Windscreens are also a favourite. And of course, at the end of the day, it is garbage in, and garbage out. Leftovers of the campaign litter the roads of Roma.

Notes on this essay:

1) As with the previous one, this is also an essay describing an environment. I tried to capture - as much as I could people posting posters or distributing leaflets, to have some action. It was not always easy, as some of them are doing this illegally and were not happy to be photographed. The legal workers were happy to discuss their techniques, and, if I had the time, I would have liked to spend some time following one of them in action across the neighbourhood.

2) The interest to look at “election garbage” is also due to the desire to contrast it with the “no posters / no frills” campaign lead by Roberto Tavani. I quite liked the fact that he was the only candidate with a “recycle” sign on if leaflets… and that he hardly ever wasted leaflets. He preferred to hand them in to people he was talking to rather than just distributing them in post boxes.

3) It is fun to look at the message of the posters juxtaposed to the surrounding area. The message “stand up again, Italy” by a bench… the poster of a candidate by a washing powder claiming a supernatural force… I did not play much this game also because this is the traditional newspaper feature: “send up some fun contrast…” . In some cases I had been waiting for by passers, to create relationship with the picture in the poster and the voter. But I did not manage to get much interesting stuff.

4) The slideshow contains the pictures I selected on this "theme". I have tried to get some substories out of it. one is about "car leaflets", another one about "electoral posters", one for gazebos... For each of them I tried to put some action and some "results". But most pictures would work well individually as part of a theme but not much in a story..