Lorenzo Biffoli's pinhole photography project captures pandemic isolation

Lorenzo Biffoli created a photography project inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic that struck Italy in March, April, and May 2020. The Italian government's decree "Io Resto a casa" (I Stay at Home) on March 9, 2020, imposed a strict lockdown, prohibiting people from leaving their homes. Biffoli used the pinhole photography technique (stenoscopia), which involves darkening a room with black cloths and creating a small hole the size of a coin to let light in. This transforms the room into a human-sized camera obscura, projecting an inverted image of the outside world onto the walls. He photographed subjects wearing face masks, symbolizing the isolation imposed by the pandemic. The technique serves as a metaphor for lives turned upside down by the crisis. Biffoli, born in Bagno a Ripoli in 1988, works as an electrical designer by day and a film projectionist by night, with photography as his lifelong passion.