Chi viaggia molto ha questo vantaggio: che i soggetti delle sue rimembranze presto divengono remoti in modo che essi acquistano quel vago e quel poetico che non e` dato loro se non dal tempo. – Giacomo Leopardi Zibaldone di pensieri

He who travels has this advantage: that the subjects of his memories soon become remote in such a way that they acquire that vague and poetic quality that is not bestowed on them if not by time.

            Recanatese means an inhabitant of Recanati, a small Italian city in the Marcheregion.  Since my first visit there in 1998, Recanati remains one of my most deeply cherished memories.  I was chosen that year to participate in a conference commemorating the bicentennial of Giacomo Leopardi, Recanati’s celebrated poet.  His early poetics are based on memory and the ephemeral nature of all things human.  For Leopardi, poetry is the highest expression of our humanity protecting memories and sentiments from the ravages of time and their eventual inevitable demise.  A long series of lectures heightened my sensibilities to the artist’s view of life and the world indelibly altering my beliefs from that point forward.

            In order to remain in Italy as an American student, I needed a passport photo for a temporary identification form.  I went to a local camera/photo store where a young woman was efficiently tending to customers.  While in line, I began remembering my interest in photography and my lack of belief in my potential abilities as a photographer.  I decided, nonetheless, to abandon my reservations and to purchase a camera to document what was slowly developing into one of my life’s best experiences.  Following the young lady’s recommendation, I purchased a Yashica camera for 50,000 lire (thirty dollars).

            As the days progressed, I found that in capable hands the little 35mm point and shoot camera had powers as great as a poet’s pen.  I was documenting scenes of people, objects and landscapes and choosing angles and perspectives that allowed me to add my own views, feelings and memories.  Studying art is to experience it through simulation, as if one is kissing his new bride through a veil.  To actually produce art, allows one to intimately identify with artists in the depiction of perspectives on the human condition.  I had achieved what Leopardi defined as the pleasure of poetry.  In his opinion, the power of art resides in nostalgia, sensations and memory.  The depiction of a street, for example, evokes in the reader or viewer images of the streets of his or her own experiences.  It is through this personal identification with the work of art that an audience derives meaning, solace and pleasure.  Life, through art, is allowed in an ineffable way to escape the strictly enforced confines of our own fragility and mortality.  All my photos and the entire Recanatese project are based on this basic principle of the Leopardian view of poetry.  I kindly ask all who view my sight to allow themselves to partake in my work and through the power of their life story to derive solace and pleasure.