La Mia Famiglia Italiana
Italy | Monday, December 24, 2012 | 
flickr photos
In the spring of 2012, I moved to Florence to study photography and art history for a semester. For a final project, I decided to visit my Italian relatives in Tassignano and photograph my experience and interactions with them, as an outsider looking into a culture I am a part of but unfamiliar with. Although we had never met before and were separated by a language barrier, I was welcomed with smiles and laughter into the home my ancestors have lived in for generations. I spent hours sitting with my father's cousin and her aging parents, looking through boxes of old family photographs. One of the most magical moments occurred when Raffaello (my distant great-uncle of sorts), a broommaker by trade, took me out to his shed to proudly show me the brooms he used to make. The portrait I shot of him is the culmination of my experience as a documentary photographer, connecting my heritage and the past with documentation of the present moment. Sadly, Raffaello's health was failing and he passed away only a few weeks later. I wish to continue to explore the world through the view of my camera and create images that make people to feel the emotions that inspire me to make photographs.
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