I found this Latin phrase on a seemingly secular wall in Rome: tota pulcra es et macula non est in te. It translates: you are completely beautiful (or pure) and there is no stain (of original sin) in you. For me, this phrase, an artifact of an earlier time, expresses my reverence for richly variegated surfaces in Italy: completely beautiful and without blemish. I printed my B&W negatives using a developer and a paper that create an earthy warm ton corresponding to terracotta, artifacts uncovered after centuries, and Italy in general. I then transferred the emulsion of each image to watercolor paper. I was aiming for some distortion to correspond to the chipping and fragmentation of an artifact. These photos are meant to be viewed as objects used to reconstruct a past or foreign culture.
