Savor the Moment (2022)

Work Exhibited in Cornell in Rome’s Art, Architecture, and Planning Studio in Palazzo Santacroce, Rome.

Food is necessary. On a scientific level, all living beings need some form of food to survive. Food, however, is much more than just a need. It’s a want— a deep craving or passion that connects people to their history, their cultures, and their friends and family. My project is a series of my experiences with food in Rome. It is an amalgamation of staged self-portraits that replicate experiences too valuable to have documented in the moment.

Food is kindness: it is the warm chicken soup stuffed into an old gelato container that my friends made for me in quarantine.

Food is fun: it is the late night drinks in Party Plaza— crying salty tears of laughter and singing Casio loudly in an alleyway at 3am.

Food is love: it is the raw scraps of bell peppers we snack on while slow dancing in the kitchen, waiting for our pasta to boil to al dente.

Food is travel: it is the two euro pizza I ate while speed walking through the city to catch up to my history professor, a pizza which I quickly purchased from a random stand in Napoli, one that I don’t even know the name of and which I keep craving, though I likely will never have it again.

Food is a way of life. It is a way of cataloging my experiences. What I eat helps me remember the places I go and the things I do. However, memories eventually fade, and sometimes I forget the taste and the smell of the dishes I’ve eaten. These photographs freeze some of my favorite moments in time, so that I can truly savor them forever.

Photographs of this self-portrait series were taken with the assistance of Luke Kratsios.