Italy seduces, with its enduring pursuit of la dolce vita – the sweet life that is at once sensual and dangerous, cool and sad, bursting with pleasure… captured so wonderfully in Federico Fellini’s 1960s classic of the same name.

In Dolce Via, Italy in the 1980s, photographer Charles Traub’s lense aims for a similar feel. His sweet way is an ode of sorts to the master – playing on the name and featuring the Fontana di Trevi, the Roman fountain immortalised by the voluptuous Anita Ekberg, as a backdrop for a number of the photographs.

Here we see couples kissing, holding hands, daydreaming, splashing water… the images burst with colour – that vibrant yellow that epitomises the 80s is dominant – and there is a sense of fun as well as infusing sensuality into almost every shot.

Traub is the chair of the photography department at the School of Visual Arts in New York. The photographs featured in this book have been selected from a large collection taken with his Plaubel Makina 67 on his visits to Italy during the decade.

Dolce Via is available from Damiani Press.

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