SIMONE BATINI
// In his new photographic series Superhero Fragments, Italian photographer Simone Batini returns to Spectaculum Magazine with a striking visual narrative that explores the enduring power of pop culture icons.
Known for his sensitivity to light and atmosphere, Simone turns his lens on a sculptural exhibition by Filippo Tincolini, recently on view in Simone´s home town Pietrasanta, Tuscany, capturing partial busts of Marvel superheroes in ways that evoke both reverence and reflection.
For Simone, art is a way of transmitting emotion—an intuitive language that surprises and stirs the viewer. His photographs remind us that connection often happens in the quietest, most unexpected moments.
“A hero can be anyone. Even a man doing something as simple and reassuring as putting a coat around a little boy’s shoulders to let him know the world hadn’t ended.”
Christopher Nolan
(The Dark Knight Rises)
What draws you to the arts?
Art has the power to surprise, to create, and above all, to transmit emotions to those who observe it.
What did you like best about photographing this exhibition?
Tincolini’s sculptures speak across generations. These are symbols we grow up with, even if we’re not comic book fans, we need figures like this—figures that can help make the world better.
This time, the setting of Simone´s series is sculptor Filippo Tincolini’s monumental exhibition Human Connections, which ran from 15 February to 2 June 2025 in Pietrasanta, Tuscany. With support from the Regione Toscana, Liquid Art System, and curated by Alessandro Romanini, the show transformed the city into an open-air dialogue between humanity, nature, and urban space. Dozens of large-scale sculptures populated the historic Piazza Duomo, Piazza Carducci, and the Church of Sant’Agostino, where Simone’s photographs were taken.
Among Tincolini’s exhibited works is a striking subset from his Human Connection series: classical-style busts and torsos of iconic Marvel and DC superheroes—rendered in marble and plaster, fractured, incomplete, yet powerfully human. These partial figures of Batman, Superman, and Spiderman evoke strength not through perfection, but through vulnerability. And it is precisely this tension—between heroic mythology and emotional resonance—that Simone so masterfully captures.
Rather than photographing the sculptures in isolation, Simone focuses on the quiet encounters between art and audience. A child gazes up at Spiderman’s fractured mask with a sense of wonder. A woman turns her phone toward the chest of a decapitated Superman. A visitor dressed in vivid red stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Batman’s stony silhouette, lost in her screen but bathed in shared light. These scenes, composed with an almost theatrical use of spotlight and shadow, underscore the fragility of memory and myth alike.
The series is technically refined yet emotionally intuitive. Simone works primarily with natural or exhibition lighting, using darkness not as a void but as a compositional tool. In these fragments, both sculptural and photographic, the absence of wholeness invites deeper attention. What remains is not a superhero’s dominance—but our very human desire to connect with meaning.
All photos © Simone Batini
To see more of his photography visit Simone´s Instagram page.
We have previously featured Simone´s documentary photography in the magazine. Find them by searching for his name in the search bar.
SPECTACULUM MAGAZINE 