Let the city of Rome speak
Posted on: April 2, 2025
By Mimo Khair
A few hours ago, I arrived in Rome. It’s my first time in the eternal city, and as with all firsts, there’s a kind of electric fuzziness in the air. Everything feels both vivid and dreamlike.
I was welcomed into the city with a warm, animated conversation with my taxi driver, who spoke with his hands and heart, and made me feel like I had stepped into something familiar, even though it was entirely new.
I usually give myself time before I photograph a city—time to feel it, to let its rhythm merge with my own. But tonight, I couldn’t resist.
The city was calling me, camera in hand. I stepped out into the night, wandered the Roman streets, and watched light reflect off puddles left behind by a passing rain. I watched a child on a tram, her face softly lit by the glow of her phone, lost in a world of her own.
Everything was in motion—trams, people, thoughts, impressions. Blurred, fleeting, beautiful.
It’s still all a bit hazy—my thoughts, the images, the impressions. But there’s a knowing, deep inside, that I’m exactly where I need to be.
Rome feels rich with meaning and promise, like a city that is waiting to reveal something just beneath its surface. And maybe, if I keep walking, and keep watching, the answers will begin to show.
This morning in Rome, as the city began to stretch awake, I wandered with no agenda. I walked with open eyes, letting the city show me what it wanted me to see.
I passed layers of history, columns standing tall among buzzing vespas, and alleyways that echoed with the footsteps of millions before me. But it wasn’t the grandeur that stopped me—it was a girl.
There she was, suspended between two pillars under an ancient fountain, drawing. She was utterly lost in her world, unaware of the heavy traffic of lives and stories moving all around her. Something about that moment, that stillness inside chaos, struck me deeply.
Isn’t that what we’re all trying to do in some way—find a thread of focus, of creation, of meaning, amid the overwhelming noise?
Today I post early, because tonight I take part in a group exhibition of 40 women photographers here in Rome. I’m showing two pieces—two personal moments turned visual stories.
Being part of this exhibition is a gift. To share space with so many women from around the world, each with a unique voice and vision, feels deeply affirming. It reminds me that the act of seeing—and of being seen—is vital to who we are.
Rome is overwhelming in its depth. You can’t just look at it—you have to listen. The city speaks through every stone, every passerby, every crack in the cobblestones.
And today, for me, it spoke through a little girl, drawing her world beneath ancient gods.
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