Street Art in Florence - Of gazes and wrinkles

Street art is generally characterized by bright colors, but some artists prefer to use black and white, often for works of a more emotional nature.

This is the case with these two portraits of elderly men, whose intense gazes convey sadness and a sense of loneliness in the observer.

The first art work comes once again from the Cure underpass, one of the "canvases" most loved by Florentine writers. It is another old man, with a wool beanie, also characterized by a very intense gaze. The eyes fixed on the observer seem to have seen many things in life, his hands are joined as if in prayer.

The effect is similar to that of the portraits of the famous American photographer Steve McCurry, who became famous for the 1984 photo of the green-eyed Afghan girl, published on the cover of National Geographic magazine and that has become a symbol of human suffering caused by war. He also often captures faces of extremely expressive elderly people, marked by the sun, time and fatigue, who dig deep into our soul with their gazes.

This work, once emerging from a black background - now covered with the writings and tags by others - is by a writer known in the world of street art with the name of About Ponny, who is specialized in stencil art and has been active since 2009 in Europe and Italy.

The other work comes from the Giovanni da Verrazzano bridge, and is signed The Typers, by which we have already seen the Greek God in Sorgane and Sturmtruppen in Viale Corsica. This too is the portrait of an old man observing us. As often happens, we don't know who the subjects of these works are, but this aura of mystery is undoubtedly part of their charm.

Like the artwork in Sorgane, this too is expertly painted in black and white, with the accent on the hair of the white beard, on the wrinkles of the face and on the lights in the eyes of the old man. Too bad that the details are already being ruined due to humidity, but we know, street art is made to make an impact, not to last.