IL MIO VIAGGIO (MY JOURNEY)
We all have our own stories to tell.
The beginnings of my life frame an unfortunate and unusual story. Foster care, normally seen as a temporary solution, became my entire childhood, from birth until my eighteenth birthday. Those years as a permanent ward of the state left an enduring mark on my personality, character, and sense of self, altering my socialization and sense of normalcy.
My creativity, specifically my photographic work, has been shaped and deeply intertwined with feelings of silence and aloneness. Growing up, I saw the world around my but did not feel an intimate attachment to anyone, except inanimate objects and toys. Though I bonded with the family I lived with and received a lot of attention, I was frequently reminded that I was not one of them. I believed myself to be dispensable, and in turn, people became dispensable to me.
To compensate and find a place for myself, I would create alternate identities. I used whatever creative tools I had access to, whether it be toys, trading cards or my imagination, to step out of my life into one where I would be valued and wanted. In my teens and early twenties, my tools became a typewriter and paper. The passion to create has continued into my adult life, and now my tools are a camera and a computer.
Over the past dozen years, I’ve invested deeply in my creative photography and have worked to use it to re-create commonplace sights and scenes, expressing them as tales of stillness, silence, and resilience. To re-imagine them as milestones of my journey through life … “il mio viaggio”.
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ALL CONTENT COPYRIGHT MICHAEL RICCO