Federico Pacini's 'Stile' Captures Siena's Decaying Urbanity

Federico Pacini (Siena, 1977) has published 'Stile' with 89books (Palermo, 2022, €32, ISBN 9791280423191), a 140-page photobook that maps his native Siena as an existential space. The images, devoid of captions or numbers, follow a stream-of-consciousness logic, prioritizing raw perception over aesthetic polish. Pacini's lens lingers on decayed details—time-worn surfaces, harsh shadows, and cropped elements like a car cut at wheel height—to evoke the intermittent nature of memory and the familiar yet dreamlike quality of known places. Few human figures appear, often alone, reinforcing a sense of absence. The book's aesthetic eschews premeditation, embracing naturalness and the 'colpo d'occhio' (instant flash of insight). Flash is used occasionally, underscoring a frank, unvarnished style. Pacini's work is described as a bidirectional gaze, outward onto the city and inward onto the self, seeking meaning in the overlooked margins. The project was supported by Artribune's newsletters (Incanti, Render, PAX).