“I had never made a book in this way before, which I viewed as a photographic challenge, and the end result is a creative collaboration with Alessandro Michele. Having Rome as the backdrop was great, the city really inspires me—the beauty of the architecture and its age and watching how the Roman people move around their unique surroundings, as well as discovering the statues in the park high above Rome that mix with beautiful clouds, and the panorama of the city below… it all lent itself for some good pictures,” says Bruce Gilden.

In high contrast black and white, the images featured inside ‘Beaten & Blown by the Wind’ paint a picture of the city’s humanity in all its variety. The mood is brooding and stark, and the portraits—defined by the photographer’s unique close-ups style—are interspersed with details of the city observed through Gilden’s curious lens.

“Bruce is a beautiful person with a poetic gaze on humanity,” says Alessandro Michele, “we share the same passion for faces and an obsession with expressions, personalities, and looks. Working with a photographer means seeing through someone else’s eyes and it was wonderful to see through Bruce’s eyes.”

The artbook comes in a format that takes its inspiration from vintage tomes, its luxurious feel in marked contrast to the earthy reality of its contents. The photographs are printed on textured off-white paper, and the title is covered in red velvet with gold foil lettering. ‘Beaten & Blown by the Wind’ is distributed by IDEA Books, the London-based independent publisher and it is also available at Gucci Garden in Florence and the Gucci Wooster Bookstore in New York.