David (e Micheal Angelo) Fare gli Stati Uniti

Chicken Wings. Blizzards. The assassination of a president. This is Buffalo, NY in a nutshell. A far cry from the panini, sunshine, and cultural royalty who roamed the vias of Firenze. Ancora, these two città have more in common than you might know. In addition to an alarming number of Italian pizzerias, Buffalo is also home to an exact copia de David cast in Bronze.

Here, an uomo nella terra di Amerigo Vespucci demonstrates a pose perfected in the halls of the Galleria dell'Accademia, the illicit "Shhhhhhhh" pose. This Buffalonian's leg muscles rival that of David's, no? He must run a lot of 5K's.

While the pauroso security guards in blue are nowhere to be found, braving the oh so beautiful Scajaquada Expressway to snap a quick pic with the "Dark David" can be just as terrificante. You never know when a fast moving macchina driven by a rogue Canadian can fly onto the grass, headed right for you and the statue.

Lost in translation? For roughly 105 years the pedestal upon which the man, the myth, the legend stands read:

DAVID
Michael Angelo
1474-1564

Perhaps this blunder was no blunder at all, but instead Signor Buonarotti's attempt to anglicize himself (from the grave) in order to fit in, as so many immigrants have done in the past. Either way, the plaque has recently been corrected. Bravo Buffalo, Bravo!

Check out the accidente, pre-correction, here:



For more on Buffalo's David check qui e qui.

Gli Audaci e Gli Belle

Pay attention folks, you are looking at due...come se dice badasses? This is, senza dubbio, the work of the bold and the beautiful; these two fearlessly went in for the self-pic with David. To pull off a photo of this caliber, the crucial roles of look out and human shield are eliminated from the process leaving the subject/photographer completely vulnerable to the fierce guards. Kudos to these two pazzi touristi for managing to get both of their faces in the picture, along with the oh so seski calves of David. Bravo, Bravo!

Venticinque per cento Messicana, Venticinque per cento Milanese

This brave little chica was lucky enough to evade the pazzi security guards at the Accademia long enough to snap two fabulous photos. Apparently, you don't mess with a half Mexican, half Italian girl...va bene!


Look at the Messicana in this photo, Ole!

Aspetta, where did this Milanese donna come from?

Andiamo!

A few photos to get the ball rolling...

Benvenuti a Foto con David

Ciao, ciao! Welcome to Photos with David, a blog dedicated to the brave ragazzi from around the world who have risked life, limb, and verbal abuse by security guards in ill-fitting blazers to snap a photo with Michelangelo's David. The Accademia is full of sneaky photogs using anything from cellphones to camcorders to document Michelangelo's masterpiece, but the real rush comes when you position yourself between the lens and the massive sculpture and snap that priceless pic of you and David. Whether you cleverly positioned yourself behind a column in the corner, enlisted friends to create the popular human shield, or brazenly held your camera high to snap that glorious photo of you hanging with everyone's favorite 17 ft marble man, this is the spot for you to showcase your renegade picture.

Allora, va bene!

The idea for this blog came during a recent trip to Florence. As former residents of the Renaissance city and experienced photos with David takers, my three friends and I arrived at the Accademia armed with four cameras. After canvasing the room, we quickly took our positions around the sculpture: a lookout, a shield, a photographer, and of course the lucky person posing with David. This process was repeated three more times, with the appropriate rotation of duties taking place. After a series of mediocre attempts that included a nice action shot of us being reprimanded by a security guard, we emerged victorious, each with our own money shot. As we exited the museum en route to some gelato, and began to review our photos one of my friends (who wishes to remain anonymous for fear this website will lead to us being taken into custody by the Carabinieri - which would not be such a bad thing if you ask me) had a revelation. It's not clear what provoked this fabulous idea, perhaps she was still overcome with emotion from standing in the presence of the incredible art created by the artistic genius that is Michelangelo, or maybe it was the combat boots, but from her lips came the concept of Photos with David.

So we invite all the brave souls out there who have joined us in snapping photos with David to submit your images to photoswithdavid@gmail.com. And remember, when you are being yelled at by a security guard in the Accademia for throwing up the pace sign while standing next to the David just reply "es no problem" and take that photo!