Treading on History: Photographs of Contemporary Italy
Mary Pat McNally
June 1, 2007 – June 30, 2007
located at Rotch Library,
which is open Monday – Thursday 9AM – 7PM and Friday 9AM – 6PM.

When photographer Mary Pat McNally first ventured to Italy in 1999, she was impressed by the marks of modern culture on the historic cities and eternal landscapes. Sometimes it was graffiti on an ancient wall; sometimes a motor boat waiting in a Venetian canal.

“It intrigued me the way life goes on in Italy amid the splendor of the past,” McNally explained. “You will see people going about their daily lives in the shadows of great cathedrals, and hanging out their laundry between buildings that date back to the Middle Ages or earlier. Sometimes the residents of a thousand year old town appear blind to the fact that they are treading on history.”

That first trip led to many more. A selection of her photographs, taken over the course of several journeys to Italy, will be on display during the month of June in the Rotch Library, located on the MIT campus. McNally earned a diploma in photography from the Art Institute of Boston at Lesley College, and is currently working as a graphic designer at MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center.