Metropoliz, located on the eastern outskirts of Rome, is a place that holds an important piece of the city’s culture – it's both an occupied building and a contemporary art museum. Originally, it was a salami factory, but since 2009, it's been home to a diverse community of individuals from various ethnic backgrounds, cultures, and life experiences. In 2012, Giorgio De Finis and Fabrizio Boni took a bold step by establishing a museum within the building. They reached out to artists from around the world, and their efforts transformed this space into a renowned contemporary art gallery known as il Museo dell’altro e dell’altrove metropolitano (the Museum of the Other and the Elsewhere), or simply MAAM.

During my week-long residency at the MAAM, I took portraits of the residents and built a camera obscura within Metropoliz. I repurposed one of the artist installations into a mobile camera obscura box. This transformation allowed the community members to step inside and experience their living space from the inside of a camera adding a magical dimension to their everyday environment. I was also able to capture these projections directly onto silver gelatin paper which I immediately printed with the installation.

Seeing the children and families of Metropoliz playing with the camera obscura, the dreamlike world seen through its lens capturing their imagination, is precisely what I hope to do in my art. Darkness shines a light on the beauty of the places and people from all corners of society, sparking our imaginations and allowing us to see our surroundings through a new and more magical lens.