Dan 2020

Name/Title

Dan 2020

Entry/Object ID

2022.9.1

Description

A monochrome, close-up image of an older man with long hair and a beard, using his right hand to smoke. He is looking off to his left side with furrowed eyebrows.

Collection

HCC Permanent Art Collection

Made/Created

Artist

Renato Rampolla

Date made

2020

Time Period

21st Century

Location

Category

Storage

Category

Exhibit

Exhibition

In their Own Words

Interpretative Labels

Label Type

Didactic

Label

Through photography and storytelling, Renato Rampolla aims to call attention to the inherent humanity of unhoused people and disrupt prevailing narratives about homelessness. Inspired by his mother, a social worker, he began collecting stories and images from people he came across on the street in order to more deeply grasp their struggles. In his portraits, Rampolla focuses his lens on his subjects’ faces rather than on their surroundings, emphasizing the immutability of human dignity regardless of situation. He explains, “I'm not a documentary photographer, I don't really show their circumstance, I'm showing their humanity. So I focus my lens on their eyes. I want you to see the human being that’s there.”