Amo Roma is a passion project born from Fabrizio Scippa and Aaron Serafino’s mutual love for the Eternal City.

Aaron, a professional photographer, has always celebrated his Italian roots. He spent a few summers in Rome exploring and making a ton of photographs. Fabrizio, who was born and raised in Rome, loved the images because they depicted the Rome he lived in for 29 years—the true Rome that is never shown on a postcard.

Combining photographs, type design and materials was a true collaboration between Aaron and Fabrizio. The letterforms spell out Amo Roma (I Love Rome) and were converted from a digital format to letterpress plates. Using a vintage desktop printing press, various type designs and unexpected color mixes resulted in these curiously unique prints.

The culmination of the project is thirty compelling prints that were adapted into a series of posters, notebooks and T-shirts. Check them out here: Amo Roma Shop on Etsy

We will be showcasing the complete collection on February 8, 2022 from 5–8pm at Pappalecco Hillcrest

In an attempt to capture some of the beauty, detail and sunlight of Italy, I made an extended series of images to chronicle journeys to Rome, Florence and Orvieto through interactions with nature and chance.

The papers I sensitized at night in the living room of our apartment were obtained in the Trastevere neighborhood of Rome, from an art store which seemed to only open for two hours per week. The chemistry was based on a widely available formula created by Sir John Herschel in 1842.

Impressions of leaves, grasses, branches, rocks, pottery and fruit gave way to man-made items associated with the daily rituals of life in Italy. Exposure times were widely varied, according to the time of day and atmospheric conditions. Some objects left stains or surface residue on the paper that became part of the image itself.

Photographs of the El Cortez Building in San Diego, California. Exterior and interior photographs made in the late 1990s, prior to the extensive renovation and transformation of the building into luxury condominiums.

Photographs made between 1999 and 2015 of various incarnations of a spontaneous performative display that appeared early on as a kind of anonymous urban graveyard, announced with a sign that said “The Ranch” posted next to a broken piece of railing or fence that had been stuck in the ground . The northeast corner of 11th Avenue and G Street provided the stage for an ongoing cycle of creation through unanticipated community utilization of an unclaimed corner downtown San Diego.

Over the course of many years, with luck and chance playing a huge part in what I was ever able to capture in photographs, this collection of images accumulated without specific intention as an attempt to chronicle and decode the individual sculptural manifestations.

The site has been repeatedly bulldozed, graded, and at times even flooded over the years and currently in use as a parking lot.

Photographs made inside the historic Balboa Theatre in the Gaslamp district of San Diego, California. Images made prior to the renovation and rehabilitation of the space, capturing signs of time and original ornamentation within the theatre, including a couple of Sugar Plum Fairies from California Ballet Company.

This growing collection of personal interest stories, of walls I watched develop over time, buildings I trespassed upon and neighborhood encounters which resulted in juxtapositions of line, form, detail and most often, paint.

A growing collection of my photographs of bands during the late 1980s and early 1990s, during a brief period when I had access wristbands that would allow my camera into different venues, until they were unceremoniously cut from my camera-bag during an ill-fated Siouxsie and the Banshees concert as two amazing rolls of film were confiscated by security. Scarred for life.

During this period, I captured images of bands and musicians like Bad Religion, Social Distortion, D.I., Chemical People, Buzzcocks, Keith Morris, and eventually, another chance to photograph Siouxsie (and Budgie) when she toured with The Creatures (and John Cale) in the early 2000s.