Paolo, Sharon and Roberto, 1977

When I went to Sharon’s to keep our photo appointment, the two Italians were with her at the kitchen table and Roberto was rolling a joint.  I set up my tripod while Roberto lit up. The joint was passed and just as Paolo took a hit I was ready to get to work. Keeping with my practice for most Taylor Camp environmental portraits taken beneath clear plastic roofs, I set the Nikor PC at f16, over exposed by two stops and underdeveloped.

“Well, I arrived at Taylor Camp with a group of Italian friends and we followed a little trail into the woods. And as I was walking all these things started appearing. And I was thinking, hmm, you know, coming from a different culture in Italy, I thought, wow, this is different. And then as I got closer to the tree houses, I remember seeing this naked girl walking toward us on the trail, and I thought, wow, this is really interesting (laughing). And I thought, oh my God, (laughing) this is the place.

“Drugs? Yeah, we got stoned, smoked a little pot, but not likenothing very excessive, maybe a couple of mushrooms once in a while. You know, it was the culture at that time, you know 60’s, 70’s, so drugs came with the territory. But I met a lot of great people there.  I look back, I see a lot of these people, they are still married, they have kids, their kids are married, they have families, you know, in a society right now thatyou know, it’s not like that. You know what I mean? So, there was something pure there that definitely build a foundation for a lot of the people.”

­— Paolo Baricchi

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