Imaginary Possessions: Learning Tuscany 2025

As photographs give people an imaginary possession of a past that is unreal, they also help people to take possession of space in which they are insecure.
— Susan Sontag, “In Plato’s Cave,” On Photography

The photographs that comprise Imaginary Possessions were made during the six-week Learning Tuscany summer study abroad program. Informed by an intensive art history curriculum that investigated the historic role of pilgrimage in Italian art and culture, students were tasked with photographically examining the contemporary iteration of pilgrimage: global tourism.

Instead of simply reproducing the stereotypical views of Tuscany that proliferate in film, coffee-table books, and tourist snapshots, students sought to make compelling and challenging representations of this complex landscape. By investigating the intersection of old and new and by imbuing quotidian scenes with drama and intrigue, students used photography to question the nature of perception, value, and beauty.