After nearly a decade in the U.S. as an immigrant, the constant navigation of immigration status, safety, and the uncertainty of home have profoundly shaped my perspective. A recent move from the diverse urban landscape of Boston, where I had firmly established a career and community, to a rural area in New Jersey marked a significant shift. In this new environment, far from familiar faces, family, and the academic sphere, I found myself in a space with a drastically different political and social fabric, one starkly contrasting the cultural richness and intellectual framework that had defined their previous life.
Diasporic Pastoral examines the emotional and visual tension between the idealized landscapes of the past and the disorienting realities of displacement.
This project reimagines the pastoral genre, framing rural landscapes as spaces imbued with both longing and melancholy. The images juxtapose the peacefulness of nature with the quiet isolation of displacement, reflecting the immigrant’s internal landscape—where home is both remembered and lost. Diasporic Pastoral ultimately underscores the difficulty of reconciling the remembered past with the alienating present, while exploring the intersection of memory, identity, and belonging.
Fari Mazzotta 