‘He always thought he had time’: a photography tribute
A photographic exhibition Live and Love the Italian Way displays photographs captured by the late John Callisto. CityMag spoke to his wife, who curated the show with legacy and culture at its core.
Claudia and John Callisto were together for 32 years and most of their days together John had a camera in his hands.
“It was something that brought him joy to his life, taking photos,” Claudia says.
“He’s always taking photos, it was his side passion.”
John worked in the car industry and passed away unexpectedly at 53, in 2022.
Before his death, John attended photography workshops and put some of his work on Red Bubble but his goal was always to have an exhibition and sell his photographs.
“He was actively moving in that direction, but he was taking a very long time to do that and he always thought he had time,” Claudia says.
John’s parents bought him his first Pentax professional camera at 16.
After John’s funeral, Claudia looked through his photos.
“That was my biggest, saddest moment,” she says.
“I was sitting there with his computer and looking at all his work and I see all these images unedited, and I see some of the work that he already started doing, and I just thought it was such a waste that he couldn’t dedicate his time to his passion enough.”
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For their son, Marcus, Claudia says it was difficult to talk about his dad at first.
“I try and bring up all these stories, but he wouldn’t look at the computer with all those images, he would just find it very just find it very upsetting,” she says.
The exhibition was an outlet for her grief, allowing her to honour his legacy, but it was still a struggle.
“I also felt guilty about that, because we’re always so busy as a family, you know, maybe I should have pushed him more, encouraged him more.
“We all think that we’ve all got time, and that’s the big thing.
“We all think we’ve got time in the world, that you know, we’re all going to age to 100 but sometimes people don’t, and I just felt this big legacy thing.”
Band players waiting for the Saint Antonio procession at Ceglie Messapica, Puglia, Italy. (Picture: John Callisto/supplied.)
In their time together, Claudia did push John.
It was 2014 and money was tight as they were “on the tail end of IVF” when John’s photography mentor Carla Coulson hosted a five-day Italian photography tour of Puglia.
It was a bucket list trip for John, but he dismissed it as something he could do when he had less responsibility, maybe in retirement, “one day”.
Claudia reached out to Carla and made it happen.
“I ended up shuffling things around and got the money together, it was quite expensive,” Claudia says.
“He was all set to go, and I presented it to him, I said, ‘you’re going’.
“And he said, ‘but I can’t go without you and without Marcus, it’s not fair.’
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“And I said, ‘only one of us can go, it’s your dream, you want to do this, but if you don’t want to go, you stay home with the baby and I’ll go!’
“He’s like, ‘oh no, that’s okay, that’s okay, I’ll go’.”
Young Marcus blows bubbles on a boat in Capri, with Claudia’s arms close by so he doesn’t fall off the boat. Picture: John Callisto/supplied.
Live and Love the Italian Way exhibits a range of John’s photos, including some from the Puglia trip and other family holidays.
On a family trip to Capri, Claudia entertained their son Marcus, who was two years old, by blowing bubbles in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea.
John was in a separate rowboat, capturing photographs of the blue grotto.
“John was down below, and he, all of a sudden, turns around with his camera and takes that photo, and this other photo of [Marcus] laughing,” Claudia says.
“It was just in that moment, wasn’t it?”
John captured painters and potters at work in Italy. Picture: John Callisto/supplied.
When the exhibition debuted as part of the Italian Festival, Claudia told the stories behind the photos, like the bubble photo.
“I remember reading something that said your legacy is lost after two generations,” Claudia says.
“If you don’t talk about it or write about it or speak about it, the stories are gone and I really think [John] deserved for his story to be told.
“My son was at the event, and he was running the bar with his friends and he was setting up the easels with me on the day.
“He heard about his dad, he heard about stories of dad’s work. You know, he was proud.
“Even just that little thing there really touched my heart, and I knew that I had made the right decision.”
Live and Love the Italian Way is free to view at the City of Charles Sturt’s Hindmarsh Library until January 22.
Claudia Callisto is an author, Fringe performer and cultural storyteller. She plans to tour Live and Love the Italian Way to Melbourne and regional South Australia.