Al Riverso
chromogenic prints, 2004, each 30" X 40"

The images in the series Al Riverso ("in reverse") are made using photographs which go back to my family's pre immigration period (Italy in the early 1950s) as their source.  The family photographs selected were chosen because they all contain hand-writing on their backs contextualizing the image with a story, name, date, or other cryptic information.

In the process of flipping between the image and the text on the back, I was reminded of a statement by Roland Barthes "memory is like a transparent envelope". Inspired by this idea, I placed the original photograph text side up on a light box and found that while the text became clearly visible, the image also bled through the emulsion and the paper, out of focus and merging with the text.

To produce the Al Riverso series I have rephotographed the merged image and text as it appears on the light box. This blending of the front and back creates a new hybrid image, one which attempts to reconcile all of the clues the photograph provides: the character of the hand-writing, the content of the words, stamps, dates as well as the image.  While the merging of these details evokes an urgent desire to deeply connect with lost persons, a particular locality, and a broken lineage, it also reminds us of all that is unattainable, of all the photograph cannot grasp.