The photographs

A life, in the pictures that got taken.

Nobody photographs a priest on purpose. These are the ones that happened anyway — somebody’s phone at a christening, a friend on a hill road in 1996, a family who insisted on a group shot outside the church.

Fr. Marco would not have chosen any of them, which is what makes them worth looking at.

The first group is different from the rest. The basilica in those photographs is a real photograph of the real place, with Fr. Marco placed into it — so the stone and the bronze and the light on the floor are the actual room.

At St. Peter's

The place itself, and him in it

These are the only photographs here that were not made in one call. The basilica is a real photograph of the real place and Fr. Marco is composed into it, so the stone, the bronze, the floor and the light are the actual pixels of that room.

Fr. Marco standing at the marble balustrade of the Confessio, looking down toward the tomb of the Apostle — The Confessio. This is where most mornings begin.

Fr. Marco standing in the middle distance beneath Bernini's bronze baldachin — Below the baldachin, at the papal altar.

Fr. Marco looking straight up into the great dome, seen from below — Looking up. Everybody does it the first time, and he still does.

Fr. Marco standing in front of Michelangelo's Pieta behind its glass — The Pieta. He stops here most mornings.

Fr. Marco at the foot of the steps of the lit basilica at night, seen from behind — Going in. The last quiet minute of the day.

The work

What the service actually looks like

A christening, a wedding, a hospital room, a doorway where somebody is crying, and a parish hall floor with a child on his shoulder. Photographed by whoever was standing there, which is never a professional.

Fr. Marco holding a baby up at a christening, the family gathered close around him — A christening. The family were the ones taking pictures.

Fr. Marco standing between a laughing bride and groom just after a wedding Mass — Just after a wedding Mass.

Fr. Marco at the bedside of a woman in a hospital room, holding her hand — A hospital room. He goes where the person is.

Fr. Marco with his hand on a woman's arm outside a church door after a service — Outside the door afterwards. This part takes longer than the service.

Fr. Marco sitting on the floor of a parish hall surrounded by children — The parish hall. Somebody's child used him as furniture.

The man alone

The ordinary hours around it

An empty pew with the breviary, the grille side of a confessional, a car, a track across open country, and the basilica when nobody is asking him for anything. This is most of a priest's week.

Fr. Marco reading a breviary alone in an empty church pew — An empty church, before anybody arrives.

Fr. Marco inside a confessional, seen through the wooden grille — The other side of the grille.

A phone selfie of Fr. Marco in the driver's seat of his car — Between two visits, in the car.

Fr. Marco walking a track across open countryside under a grey sky — The walk he takes when the day has been heavy.

Fr. Marco standing alone with his head bowed inside St. Peter's Basilica — In the basilica on his own. No card in his hand.

Bergamo and after, on film

The parish years

The oldest pictures in the box. A christening, a kitchen table, a village altar and a road above a town, back when everything was on film because there was nothing else.

A young priest holding a baby up at a baptism in a small parish church — A baptism, some time in the late nineties.

A young priest at a kitchen table with a family, early 2000s — A kitchen table after Mass.

A young priest at the altar of a village church saying Mass — The village altar, a weekday Mass.

A young priest standing on a hill road above a town, 1996 — The road above the town.

The next walk has room for one more card.

You do not have to be able to make it to St. Peter's Basilica yourself. That was never the requirement.

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