Transition
The images in this suite were made over a 52-year period. In these pictures, the subjects were undergoing deep and life-changing shifts. Love to lovelessness, health to sickness, childhood to youth, youth to adulthood, genderbending, graduating, single to married, married to single (again), loss of livelihood, loss of health, sick, dying, lifeless. Uncertainty. The images were spontaneous, neither staged, posed or planned.
Life on earth for the human is a cycle. Sometimes it is a gentle cycle, sometimes a turbulent one. Some cycles exude joy and happiness, while others offer poignant uncertainty. All point towards the end of the tunnel, eventually. And all through the cycles, there is the repetition of transition. The photographs ask these questions:
“Will I be free? Can a live in a world where I will be able to grow, if I grow up?”
“Am I different? People tell me I am. Is that wrong?”
“What happened to my youth? My health? My life?”
“How can I earn a living honestly? Will the world I find myself in let me?”
“Will I ever find love again?”
“Where do I go when I die? Do I carry on? Or do I simply cease? Am I even real?”
photo captions 1-12
1) Boy in the Ruins, Sicily – Conquered by many, Sicily is strewn with the broken dreams of the past. Now, as close as his backyard, a young boy plays amidst the field of ruins.
2) Lizanne, Walking in Water – Stricken with multiple sclerosis at 40, Liz was rapidly enveloped by the disease, to the point it prevented her from walking on land without a cane. Only in water did she have freedom of movement.
3) The Sicilian-American Wedding – A nervous young bride-to-be and even more nervous father await the moment when he gives her away for the rest of her life.
4) “Animage” – As the title says, a made-up word. But a real event. It was as if the image of this woman appeared as a projection of the photographer’s feminine side. Here she acts as a mirror, reflecting back to him.
5) The Graduate – With a war just ending and the economy in shambles, a young college graduate glares back at the camera, as if to say, now what?
6) Iranian Student with Handgun – During the Iranian hostage crisis, an Iranian student displays his gun with fearless audacity.
7) The Observer – A young boy on the autism spectrum, strong willed and without neuro-typical constraints, dares to see and be seen.
8) The Shakedown – The old shopkeeper begs his Sicilian handler to show mercy. The handler, a mafia consigliere, will eventually force the man and his family into insolvency.
9) The Mendicant – Homeless and legless, a man begs on a litter-strewn sidewalk in Sicily.
10) Waterloo – Louis contemplates the dissolution of his marriage and the end of a chapter in his life.
11) Christmas Eve – Strolling around a department store right before it closed for the holiday led to this lifeless lamentation.
12) The Passerby – A surreal 1/640th of a second for the traveler witnessing his life’s apex and nadir in synchrony with the water’s edge.
2) Lizanne, Walking in Water – Stricken with multiple sclerosis at 40, Liz was rapidly enveloped by the disease, to the point it prevented her from walking on land without a cane. Only in water did she have freedom of movement.
3) The Sicilian-American Wedding – A nervous young bride-to-be and even more nervous father await the moment when he gives her away for the rest of her life.
4) “Animage” – As the title says, a made-up word. But a real event. It was as if the image of this woman appeared as a projection of the photographer’s feminine side. Here she acts as a mirror, reflecting back to him.
5) The Graduate – With a war just ending and the economy in shambles, a young college graduate glares back at the camera, as if to say, now what?
6) Iranian Student with Handgun – During the Iranian hostage crisis, an Iranian student displays his gun with fearless audacity.
7) The Observer – A young boy on the autism spectrum, strong willed and without neuro-typical constraints, dares to see and be seen.
8) The Shakedown – The old shopkeeper begs his Sicilian handler to show mercy. The handler, a mafia consigliere, will eventually force the man and his family into insolvency.
9) The Mendicant – Homeless and legless, a man begs on a litter-strewn sidewalk in Sicily.
10) Waterloo – Louis contemplates the dissolution of his marriage and the end of a chapter in his life.
11) Christmas Eve – Strolling around a department store right before it closed for the holiday led to this lifeless lamentation.
12) The Passerby – A surreal 1/640th of a second for the traveler witnessing his life’s apex and nadir in synchrony with the water’s edge.
