ROME ENGAGEMENT SESSIONRozina & Salvatore

July 17, 2026

Rozina and Salvatore are getting married, and before the wedding they wanted Rome. We met at sunrise, when the centre is empty and you can hear the Trevi Fountain from a street away.

We walked the empty centre and photographed their engagement session in black and white. Everything below happened before most of the city had its first espresso.

Before the crowds

At dawn there is nobody at the Trevi Fountain, and the street sweepers have the Pantheon piazza to themselves. You can stand in the middle of two thousand years of stone and hear nothing but water.

The Altare della Patria empty at dawn, Rome, in black and white Rozina and Salvatore on the steps of the Altare della Patria at sunrise
Rozina and Salvatore laughing together in early morning RomeA close portrait of Salvatore and Rozina, his hand on her cheek, Rome engagement session
The couple embracing at an empty Trevi Fountain at dawn
A kiss beneath the statues of the Trevi Fountain, black and whiteRozina and Salvatore kissing between the marble niches of the Trevi Fountain
The Trevi Fountain rising above the couple in soft focusA quiet kiss at the Trevi Fountain before the crowds arrive

Why black and white

In 2008 I saw a single photograph by Ragnar Axelsson, a man alone on a beach, and it set the direction for everything I have shot since. Black and white has been the north star from that day on.

Your output is the result of your input, and my input has always been monochrome: Axelsson’s Iceland, Bergman’s stark frames, faces half in shadow. At six in the morning Rome is marble, shadow and hard side light, and in black and white the attention stays where it should: on the two of them.

And the practical note, same as always: I shoot black and white in camera, but the raw files keep the colour. If you want both worlds, you can have them. These are how I saw the morning.

The session

An engagement session before a wedding is a rehearsal for being photographed, which is a skill nobody is born with. By the second fountain, nobody was posing.

The columns of the Temple of Hadrian with the couple beneath, Rome A street sweeper passes the couple in a Roman piazza at dawn
A kiss on the cheek beneath ancient columns in RomeRozina and Salvatore small between the columns of the Pantheon portico
The Pantheon at dawn with the couple embracing below the inscription
Rozina looking back with Salvatore behind her, Rome engagement photographyThe couple face to face between the Pantheon columnsRozina and Salvatore laughing face to face in black and white
Hand in hand in the shadows of the PantheonA close double portrait of Rozina and Salvatore in morning shadow

We ended the way a Roman morning should: standing at a bar with espresso while the first regulars came in. If Rome is where you are getting married, I will take any excuse to come back. And if Italy is the plan but the city is not, Anna and Andrea’s Dolomites elopement is the other version. Meet me before sunrise.

An embrace on a cobbled Roman street at first lightRozina resting her head on Salvatore’s shoulder against a column
The sun cresting the rooftops of Rome behind the couple Espresso at a Roman bar counter after the session

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