Photographing the Temple of Hadrian and the premises of the Chamber of Commerce in Rome

CLIENT

Camera di Commercio di Roma

LOCATION

Campus Martius, Rome, Italy

PHOTOGRAPHER

Riccardo Budini

CATEGORY

Architecture – Lightning – Cultural Heritage

YEAR

Aug. 2019

Case Study: Photographs of the Chamber of Commerce of Rome premises

Architectural photography for the Chamber of Commerce of Rome premises, between the historical Piazza di Pietra and Piazza Sant’Ignazio. I’ve been asked for photographs of the monumental exterior and interior spaces, both with daylight and night artificial lightning.

The main building facade features the distinctive eleven columns from the external colonnade of the ancient temple of Hadrian. The temple have been incorporated into a later building in the Piazza di Pietra (Piazza of Stone), the Dogana dei Beni di Terra by architect Carlo Fontana at the end of XIX century.

The main facade is illuminated sideways by direct sunlight for a short time frame of just a handful of minutes. I then had to calculate beforehand precisely the sun path and the resulting cast shadows with a chart.

Luckily the best time for natural lightning was – during summer -in the early morning  and it coincided with relatively low human and vehicle traffic time. The monument is in fact a relevant  tourist attraction.