Since my journey started here in January, I have seen many new and unfamiliar things but after some reflection, I noticed I had been subconsciously tracking this familiar color through images I took on my phone. Scrolling through my camera roll and pattern began to emerge. Blue after blue after blue, maybe as a way to see bits of myself in the unknown fabric of Rome that I now explore and inhabit.

Color has always been something I have been visually drawn to and specifically the color blue. Being born with blue eyes, it begins to be the color people associate with you and eventually it becomes a lens for how you see and interact with the world around you. People have color. Places have color. Emotions have color. Time has color. My experience studying abroad in Rome has been filled with variety of new a intriguing experiences. Linking these experiences together through the mapping of blue images serves as a vivid reflection of my time here.

Starting from my first few days here, I explored the neighborhood of Testaccio to see the site for our studio project. As the grid progresses images from the Roman Forum and EUR begin to emerge. As the semester continues, stills from Ostia Antica and Hadrian Villa begin to populate the grid. Mixed in throughout the timeline, there is a heavy focus on art from the multiple galleries and museums that I experienced. It is interesting to me how the vividness of color is parallel between images of significant works of art to images I have gathered in my everyday experiences. Continuing through the grid photographs of my time exploring different parts of Europe emerge. The colors of Naples derived from the ocean in which it hugs to the exorbitant hues of blue that construct the fabric of Greece. When I was traveling through Greece the presence of blue was omnipresent. The piercing blue sky, the colors of their national flag, the intensity of the sea, all woven together through the architecture of Greece. Here in Greece, I truly began to reflect on the influence that this color has had on me through my journey in Europe and in life.

Once I returned back to Rome, I began to more consciously track blue through photographers. There is a shift in the grid where the composition of these images become more encompassed by the color blue. Focusing in on the void in the urban fabric is one of my favorite studies. During final trips to London, Nice, and Milan my focus becomes more concentrated on capturing the instances of blue that I encountered on my journey. The final image of the grid is significant for it is from my final site visit with my program to the Maxxi Museum.

Through this collection of photographs, I have been able to link these diverse experiences through the ubiquitous repetition of blue..