The peripheries are the protagonists in the work of architect-photographer Gabriele Basilico—urban landscapes that have either undergone transformation or are on the cusp of change. The focus of his images is never the architectural object itself, but rather the life that surrounds it, which reveals often hidden aspects such as emptiness or states of abandonment. The contrast within the scene’s centers on the duality—old versus new—of urban expansion. In his praise of slowness, Basilico’s photographs strive to reach the essence of vision, seeking a possible meaning within place. What emerges is a revelation of photography itself: each image becomes a project—not only in intention but also in composition—like a drawing imprinted on film. This compositional technique recurs across his works in both Italian and Portuguese cities and succeeds in highlighting morphological characteristics and visual leitmotifs repeated with the same seriality as his photographs. This paper aims to analyze the typological traits shared by the cities photographed in Italy and Portugal, conceiving the city as a place where countless gazes intersect, and fragments of memory surface from distant places, constructing a visual narrative that photography seeks to return through a new form—a new interpretation of reality.