Sixteen Years
Left: October 8, 2006 - Florence, Italy (photo by Sara Venticinque) Right: October 8, 2022 - Turin, Italy (photo by Raffaella Ramondetti)
I’ve spent most of my life behind the camera, so I don’t have a lot of photos of myself — certainly not compared to the countless portraits I’ve taken of other people, family and friends and clients, through the years. But I just came across a photo that a friend took a few weeks ago, at a flower festival on the outskirts of Turin. I was immediately reminded of one my sister took of me back in 2006 when we were high above the rooftops of Florence, enjoying the early evening sun at Piazzale Michelangelo. It occurred to me that the two photos were taken around the same time of year, and then I started to wonder…. A quick search through (very) old emails confirmed that both photos were indeed taken on the same date, October 8, exactly sixteen years apart. A snapshot of the same woman at two different points in life.
Who was that young woman on the left? And what would she think of the woman she’d become?
(Fun fact: On the right, I’m wearing earrings that I purchased in Essauoira, Morocco on that same 2006 trip, just a few weeks prior. Full circle.)