It was a lazy Monday evening in a three story apartment in the midst of downtown Florence, Italy. I hadn’t touched my computer all day or received any message from friends and I started to feel very off and disconnected. I kept staring at my computer screen like a black void and thought about the world we try to live through our devices compared to world we actually experience. Especially when we are away from our homes being tourists. I wanted to reflect my tourist experience in Florence through the powerless devices that I would normally indulge myself in to experience the city and supplement what I believe my reality lacks.

 

When thinking of this project, I was reminded of Manet’s paintings, A Bar at the Folies-Bergere. What pulls you into the painting is that the scene is mostly all reflection, and the foreground does not seem to support that reflection. I also thought about the Claude Glass. A little tool that artists used to simplify the tonal range of the reflection of what they paint. These artists were well aware of how differently reflections can shape the world around them. These images represent my weeks in Florence being “turned off” and seeing things differently. 

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