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If you were lounging on San Marco beach in Sciacca, Italy, over the past over the past few years, there’s a chance you saw Matt Nager wandering down the mile long stretch, camera poised and ready to go.
Matt has been documenting the beach for three years, as his wife is from Sciacca they travel there often. A project that started out as portraits transitioned into landscape environmental shots, and is now all about the sights, sounds and smells of San Marco Beach.
As one would imagine, Matt didn’t have subjects lining up down the beach to pose for portraits. In fact, it was quite the opposite. Beach-goers were suspicious from the get go and would turn their heads at the mere sight of someone with a camera:
I’ve never had so many rejections in my life! Perhaps it was the beach atmosphere, perhaps it’s something innate to Sicilian culture, but people were very suspicious. In the end I took about 20 portraits and used about 10 in the project. Out of the 20, only two were women. It wasn’t for a lack of trying, but I ended up getting mostly men for the portraits. Language was also a bit of a challenge. I speak Spanish, but my Italian is certainly lacking. Perseverance was the only way to get the portraits. I would say, 1 out of every 8 people agreed to be photographed.
In the end, the project was very successful and Matt and has now made the photos into a book.
To view more of Matt’s work check out mattnager.com.