This is Part 1 of Arrested Development, my photography project about the evolution of human beings in the wrong direction. It is a rebuttal to Darwin’s evolutionary thinking—a demonstration, through observable behaviour and photographic evidence, that the human race is moving along a path dictated by stupidity and marked by a general loss of good taste.
A tribute to Martin Parr
Part 1 is also my personal tribute to Martin Parr, who sadly passed away on the 6th of December 2025. I had the immense fortune of meeting Martin during a video conference organized by Tomasz Trebiatowsky for FRAMES. We talked about his sources of inspiration. Since I’m Italian, it was natural for him to delve into the topic of tourism and the places ruined by tourists. He mentioned Venice, but his work also includes Pisa as a capital of kitschy behaviour—if that term makes any sense.
When Tourists Give Their Very Best
I want to open Arrested Development with a close look at how people spoil Pisa every single day, when tourists give their very best.
Darwin was wrong: we are evolving backwards.
Tourism is often celebrated as a bridge between cultures, but in places like Pisa’s Piazza dei Miracoli it functions more like a wrecking ball—swinging wildly through centuries of artistic harmony and leaving behind a landscape dominated by selfie sticks, forced‑perspective acrobatics, and a collective abandonment of dignity.
Piazza dei Miracoli should be a sanctuary of beauty: a place where marble, geometry, and centuries of human genius come together in perfect harmony. Instead, it has become the world’s largest open‑air mime school. Every day, thousands of visitors descend on the square with one mission: to pretend they are holding up the Leaning Tower, as if Pisa’s structural integrity depended on their outstretched palms.
The choreography is always the same. People freeze in bizarre poses—arms stiff, legs bent, faces twisted in heroic concentration—while their companions shout instructions like deranged art directors: “A little left! No, YOUR left! Higher! No, LOWER!” Meanwhile, the Tower continues to lean with complete indifference, as it has for centuries, unimpressed by the global army of amateur illusionists.
The Cathedral and Baptistery, masterpieces of medieval architecture, are reduced to mere background props for a joke that wasn’t particularly funny the first time someone tried it some fifty years ago.
Trivialization as Violence
I would like you to stop for a second and think about how this expression of mass tourism doesn’t simply erode cultural heritage; it becomes a subtle form of violence against those who come hoping to experience the beauty, harmony, and silence of the place, only to find it drowned out by an endless circus of forced‑perspective antics.
Retaliation Through the Lens
My photos are not souvenirs; they are counter‑souvenirs. I like to think that irony can be a form of resistance, and that a camera, pointed with intention, can push back with a bold statement: “No, the Tower still doesn’t need your help to stand.”
Our ancestors, who designed and built the magical scenery of the piazza, would be asking Darwin for an explanation…
(Meanwhile, in Stonehenge…)
…and the Druids of Stonehenge join Rinaldo, Giambologna, and the other architects of Pisa in questioning Darwin about his theory of human evolution…
There’s plenty more arrested development ahead… stay tuned!
Ruggero
Ruggero Pellegrin 
Leave a comment