Distracted, Camogli, Italy, 2010

I PHOTOGRAPHED THIS ITALIAN GENTLEMAN in the middle of lunch in the little seaside town of Camogli, Italy. He and his wife were enjoying a quiet lunch together when our workshop rolled in and they just went on enjoying themselves like we weren’t even there, eventually lighting a cigarette and enjoying an after-lunch coffee. I was drawn to the look of this man and wondered if I could make a photograph that felt like the images I’ve been so influenced by—not just those by particular photographers like Elliott Erwitt or Henri Cartier-Bresson, but by an era. I felt like I was looking at a scene from 60 or 70 years ago. The problem, as it often is, is that how I felt was influenced by so much that would have to remain ...

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