Photography always tells us more about its subjects than they might wish to reveal. In this sense, it is different from the other arts, in that it serves as a collaboration between the artist and the medium. Luigi y Luca understand this better than any other artist duo to have confined themselves to photographic art; unlike most photographers who prefer to look out at the world around them, Luigi y Luca prefer to use the lens as a tool for looking within. In subjecting themselves to this alluring means of inquiry, Luigi y Luca bravely place one another in an extremely vulnerable state, revealing intimate truths about their lives that most of us prefer to keep private.

The Private Album occupies a special place in Luigi y Luca’s developing oeuvre, in that it completely foregoes the glamorous lighting, sets, costumes, and props that have become a hallmark of the duo’s work. An unheralded intimacy occupies the foreground here, affording us a “day in the life” glimpse of the artists-as-lovers in hotels, bathrooms, and beaches during a year of travel through Spain and the United States. No one is as generous as Luigi y Luca in exposing their desires, uncertainties, and love for one another across this shifting domestic terrain. This is the diary of a love-in-progress between two artists continually exploring new ways of uniting as one.