Icona

ICONA is the photographic essay produced by Toni Amengual during his stay at the Spanish Academy in Rome in 2021. Taking the Eternal City as his working ground, the author reflects on the use of images as a means of social control.

The book includes photographs showing classical art, originally conceived as a form of propaganda by religious and political systems, and photographs of contemporary scenes. This combination shows the direct relationship between classical and contemporary representations of art. In contemporary photographs, the constant presence of security cameras and cell phones hints at the image-based control to which we are subjected today.