Tony Attardo

A Portrait of Place

The American novelist John Steinbeck, reminds us, “You can only understand people if you feel them in yourself”.1 These words run deep, and bring me back to a very young age when the conversation at our family dinner table wasn’t about food, it was about respect; treating people with dignity and respect no matter what their station in life, what they looked like, where they came from, or where they lived. Today, at 71 years old, this powerful lesson is still the driving force of my photography.

In this body of work, I have created portraits of people’s surroundings and lives in the lesser known small rural and urban places in my home state of New Hampshire. The motivation behind this,  and all my work, is to inform, inspire, and to connect cultures and lives that help start conversations about dignity and respect.

These images, a combination of digital monochrome and black and white film, focus on the interplay of light and shadow and detail. They allow the viewer to concentrate on the subjects’ expressions and environment while enhancing an emotional connection.

In each photograph, there are signs of a calm, steady human presence-each with their own character.  The buildings serve as a tangible link to the past, offering us a sense of place and continuity, a story of quiet resolve – i.e. a century old granite church, the active brick factory buildings, and a small town hall on a country road.  Creating black and white images help transcend time,create emotional depth, and bring people directly into the present. 

All of these photographs extend the viewer an invitation into the spaces where one can easily enter and perhaps contemplate who might live here, feel their presence, and imagine their voices.  Each photograph, complete with its beauty and complexity, becomes a single thread in a much larger story.

1 From a recent public exhibit, Portland Museum of Art 2023