The Funny Story Behind Two Peaceful Photos Taken in Bari Centro Storico, 2014
Girl in Yellow & Polenta Seller, Centro Storico, Bari, 2014
It was the July of 2014, I had just broken up with my girlfriend a week before and I was now on a tour of Italy that we had planned to take together but I was now taking alone. My kids were in summer camp in upstate New York so they were very happily discovering a world with no sidewalks. This gave me two weeks to discover parts of Italy I had only heard about but had never had the time to visit. I was going to work my way south from Milan and had already visited Modena, Bologna , Rimini and was now arriving in Puglia staying with my friend Domenico Gianfrate.
I had heard that Bari was quite the unique place to discover but that it was also a bit wild and I should be very careful if I plan to walk around alone in the Centro Storico. Well ,of course, I was going to be walking alone in the Centro Storico and with my expensive looking Canon camera on my shoulder but I didn’t want to draw attention so for only the second time ever (Rio being the first) I decided to carry my camera in a backpack.
When I arrived in Bari early one morning the sun was shining, the breeze was warm and it was everything you imagine Southern Italy to be in the Summer. Nonne were hand-making pasta on little folding tables just in front of their apartments that had the doors open and colorful beads hanging in the doorframe. The main streets were busy but the side streets were still very quiet. In the photo below ,of the girl in the red dress, you can see how narrow the streets are and how closely the buildings are to each other that it creates a canyon-like effect. A lot of the apartments don’t seem to have air-conditioning so a lot of life is still lived in the streets which makes the experience feel so intimate.
After about an hour of wandering I turned onto a narrow street and I saw this young girl dressed in a yellow top and white shorts. She was sitting on the ground in front of her apartment that had its door open and a decorative yellow curtain to let the breezes pass through. Her head was resting in her hand and she was just staring off into space. I’d like to imagine she was dreaming about her future and what adventures awaited her but I’ll never know.
Sometimes you turn a corner and a picture just presents itself to you, you just have to see what you're seeing and once you recognize it’s “a moment” be able to react. Well this was an obvious moment and I was ready to react but I had to move very nonchalantly because I didn’t want to disturb the situation. However the girl seemed just young enough that I felt I should look around to see if there was a parent around to ask before I took the photo (especially in an area I heard could be wild). Staying nonchalant as possible I walked past the girl and saw a woman sweeping nearby and asked ,in my broken Italian, if she was the mother of that young teenager. She nodded yes so I reached in my backpack and showed her my camera and told her I was from New York and acted-out that I wanted to take a photo of her daughter sitting on the stoop. I’m very good at non-verbal communication and I think she saw what I saw and nodded yes again but with that Italian shoulder-shrug and head-tilt that says more than the actual words .
I knew I had to move fast before I lost the moment so I quickly but calmly sat on the ground against the wall across from the girl and took my camera out of the bag. She looked directly at me but in true international teenager mode she couldn’t have cared less what I was doing. I put the camera to my face to check the settings and make some adjustments but just about that moment a woman stepped out onto her terrace that was on the first or second floor, just above the mother who she couldn’t see from her angle, and saw me preparing to take a photo of her teenage neighbor. I guess she didn’t like what she saw because even though I don’t know exactly what she said I could tell by the tone it was something like “Hey! Who are you?? What are you doing??” I knew I had permission so I kept going about my process but the mom steps out into the narrow street and yells up at her something like “ He’s from New York and he’s…” Well that first shout-out drew the attention of a few other nearby neighbor ladies and they were now on their terraces shouting “ Hey! Who’s he? What’s he doing?” and now the Mom and the first lady are yelling across the street “He’s from New York and he’s shooting…”. Instantly it seemed every terrace on the block had a shouting Nonna on it! Have you ever heard Howler Monkeys and how their howl echos through the trees like thunder? Basically it sounded like that but in Italian!
I’m trying to stay focused and capture this seemingly sincere moment of a teenager sitting on her front step contemplating her future but all around me the block is exploding. I guess this is the world this young girl has grown up in and it doesn’t phase her at all and with just a hint of I’d-rather-be-anywhere-else-but-here in her eyes she looked directly at me for a few very sweet frames.
I was literally laughing to myself while I was shooting trying to balance the cacophony of noise my ears were hearing and the sincerity my eyes were seeing as I snapped away.
It only took a few moments to capture this naturally perfect scene so I put my camera back in the bag and smile gratefully to the girl and the mom and waved to the nosey neighbors and continued on my trek. Someday I’ll share a story of an equally noisy shoot in an equally wild location in India but that’s another story for another day.
Later that day I saw an old lady was cooking and selling fried polenta on the steps in front of her apartment. She was wearing a housedress which is something I haven’t seen worn since my grandma use to wear them while I was growing up in the 1970’s. This woman had such a sweet look that ,of course, I wanted to make a portrait of her. I knew if I bought a bag of fried polenta I’d have a better chance of getting a yes for my photo request and it was a perfect excuse to eat some delicious ,but not so healthy, fried polenta!
I bought the bag and while I was letting it cool down I asked her if I could take a photo of her. Again this was in a mix of broken Italian and non-verbal communication. I took the camera out of my bag and her eyes got big and all of a sudden with cat-like agility she smiled and jumped up a few steps and leaped over the stair-rail onto a little platform outside her window. I’m not a great writer so I don’t think I’m describing just how youthful and spry her movements were in jumping onto that spot, I was probably half her age and I don’t think I could have moved like that!
Anyway I think she enjoyed how much she surprised me and immediately took a pose for her personal photoshoot. I laughed and then took several photos from slightly different angles but again the photo pretty much made itself I just had to execute it! After ten or so frames I gave her the thumbs up and said thank you. She smiled and put her finger up wanting me to wait a moment as she disappeared into her apartment and quickly returned with a book in her hand. Jamie Oliver had already shot her for a book and she was now something of a local celebrity. I just hope that after my book came out with her photo in it she shared it with as much pride!
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Bring back house dresses I say 👌