A Sheaf of Stories

Project Statement

Stepping out of the Santa Lucia train station in Venice and onto the plaza was like moving from a theatre lobby into the seating area. The golden afternoon light on the Church of San Simeone Piccolo, across the canal, defined the stage. Unlike the theatre, I now had the chance to step out of the darkness and onto the stage.

Viewing the world as a stage is a metaphor with a long history. The accompanying implication is that we each act in our parts, with only a marginal awareness of the stories of the other actors. But recognizing this means that we can transcend it. An aspect of travel photography is the challenge of documenting in a distinctive way places that we think we know because we have seen so many pictures of the location. This presumed knowledge also hinders our ability to experience the daily and weekly rhythms of a place. My introduction to Venice inspired the approach that I would take for getting to know Italy.

In this body of work I’ve focused on the stories that might illustrate aspects of the lives of some of the people around me. Stories define the similarities and differences among us and foster understanding. An important part of this approach means photographing people at distances defined by the distance of human interaction.

There is not one story, there are many; and they are not my stories. These stories are here for you to discover.