Chuck Vitello
Email: c.vitello@mchsi.com
My photographic images are digital copies of 35MM photographic negatives that I took during my career as an overseas educator from 1973-2003. With the advent of the digital darkroom and its image manipulation capabilities, I was able to “resurrect” my images that were secreted away in boxes and lay dormant for many years.
Now retired, I have had the great fortune to live in ten foreign countries and to document my life and travels through my photography. The images that I am presenting for exhibition are primarily from South America (Ecuador, Peru, Guatemala & Brazil), The Middle East (Bahrain & Saudi Arabia), and Asia (Thailand).
During the years that I did most of my photography, I worked in both monochrome and color. My ultimate goal was to try to capture that special moment in people’s normal day-to-day lives in their natural environment. This did prove touchy in some areas, such as the Middle East, where photographing people was frequently frowned upon.
I never tried to achieve visual beauty or technical perfection in my photographs but approached photography with the express goal of trying to tell a story through my images. Realizing fully that each image might tell a different story to each viewer, I am flattered and humbled when someone tells me what meaning a particular photograph imparts on them.
As a student of photography, I was most influenced by the great documentary photographers whose work is often described as documentary aesthetic. Of the many that I have grown to appreciate, the two who stand out in particular are W. Eugene Smith and Henri Cartier-Bresson.
