Incredibly Creative Pothole Project

May 28, 2011

Spaghetti & Meatballs on Greenwich Street

Most of the time, we try to avoid potholes. If we do end up driving over them, we get angry. Instead of being frustrated about the whole experience, Montreal-based Claudia Ficca and Davide Luciano decided to give us a reason to laugh at the annoying holes in the streets.

The husband and wife duo asked their friends to get involved, and together, they started coming up with some amazingly creative scenes. They have since taken the Pothole series to different cities around the world, including Montreal, Toronto, New York, and Los Angeles.

What I admire most about this couple is how they are able to tell a unique and elaborate story through every single one of their images. After laughing out loud at their set, I knew I had to get in contact with them. You can catch that interview, below.

Diver on Ave Musset

Can you please give us a brief description of yourselves?
We are both born in Montral, Canada. Davide graduated from the Toronto film school, he has since expanded his artistic practice to include photography and has developed a passion for the art form. He is presently working on his next major photography endeavor. Claudia is an Italian language and literature graduate from Concordia University and a self-taught photographer with a particular interest in food photography. She enjoys collaborating on artistic photography projects alongside her husband Davide.

Baywatch on Almafi Dr.

What first inspired you to take shots with potholes?
After hitting a pothole in our neighborhood we became inspired to turn these frustrating potholes into something “useful” and humorous. We began the project by using ourselves as the models in the photos with the first scene being “Laundry on St-Urbain”. We found the perfect pothole which was located on a residential street; filled our car with laundry, detergent, water, a drying rack and Claudia started hand-washing clothes while Davide snapped away. The next scene was of Davide crushing grapes in a pothole to make wine, here we borrowed all of his grandfather winemaking tools and Davide head out make red wine on St-Zotique Street (we didn’t drink it!). Our friends and family are featured in all the other photographs, with two exceptions. Without their support this project would not have been possible.

Winemaking on Rue St-Zotique

I noticed that your series travels to different cities. What do these different cities offer?
Traveling inspire us to create new scenes, which are influenced by the local culture. It also offers a different visual backdrop for our photographs like yellow cabs in NYC or clear blue skies and palm trees in Los Angeles. We feel that by traveling and by exhibiting our work in the cities in which we shoot we are reaching out to more people.

Doughnuts on Rue Belanger

What type of feeling or theme do you want your viewers to take away from your work?
This project started as a humorous way to expose the ridiculous pothole problem in Montral. Along the way we realized that sometimes we can’t change things that frustrate us (like potholes), but we have the power to change our perspective toward those things. This is what this project is really about.