Spectacle and Stone: Iwan Baan’s Rome – Las Vegas: Bread and Circuses (Review) – Viewfinder Chronicles
On the surface, absolutely nothing, one’s a history-rich, empire-soaked cornerstone of Western civilisation, and the other’s a desert-born shrine to excess and fleeting thrills. But in Rome – Las Vegas: Bread and Circuses, Iwan Baan tears up the rulebook, stitching these two wild cities together in ways that’ll leave you reeling. Published by Lars Müller, this isn’t just a photobook, it’s a thought-provoking deep dive into spectacle, power, and the ways architecture shapes our lives and the stories we tell ourselves. Baan, with his flair for urban landscapes, bounces between Rome’s monumental ruins and Vegas’s ‘fake-it-til-you-make-it’ charm, turning both into vibrant stages for human performance. Suddenly, ancient Rome feels alive, and Vegas hints at future ruins still waiting to crumble.
