PJ's Studio: Rome digital collage

Sunday, August 3, 2025

Rome digital collage

This month’s digital collage features this photograph from Rome, which I took on my visit in 1997.

There’s actually an interesting story about it. I liked it so much, that I bought the negative into a photo store to have it blown up to 20” x 30” for my walls at work. Yes, it was pre-digital.

When I returned to pick up the enlargement, I was horrified to find that they had given me someone else’s photo. Presumably they had not lost my negative, but merely had sent it and my photo to whomever owned the one I was looking at.

The people at the store asked me what the subject of the photo was so they could attempt to retrieve it. I told them that it was a photograph of “The Roman Forum.”

Several days later, I received a phone call asking me if the missing photo was of “three columns.” I responded yes. But I also realized then that not everyone knows what the Roman Forum looks like. Go figure. 😉

When I began teaching/training, I used the story to illustrate the fact that communication doesn’t work if your audience has no idea what you are taking about.

I combined the photo with this drawing of olive oil and cherries for the final collage.