The Glory of Water

Book excerpt: Rome would be unthinkable without its fountains. They play a fundamental role in this ancient city's history and to date have largely contributed to its beauty. The Fontana di Trevi acts like a magnet to the Roman tourist, often being their first destination of their visit. Rome has many famous fountains but also many that are almost secret and hardly known at all but are just as beautiful and interesting. With his camera, Karl Lagerfeld has embarked on a dialogue between the past and the future, the result being a series of 50 daguerreotypes. The daguerreotype process - an almost forgotten technique mastered by only a few specialized artists nowadays - was the first photographic process to permanently fix an image onto a medium. The surface of a daguerreotype is similar to that of a mirror, with the image made directly on the silvered surface. Depending on the angle viewed, the image can change from a positive to a negative and adapt an almost three-dimensional appearance. Karl Lagerfeld's photobook is a modern and colorful interpretation of the traditional monochromatic Daguerreotypeplates masterfully rendered on paper by Steidl.