Little Boxes is a photo novel created, photographed, and designed by Daria Addabbo, who has long explored the photo novel as a contemporary form rooted in the Italian fotoromanzo and intertwined with the visual language of the graphic novel.
Set in Palm Springs, the project features Francesca Forquet, an Italian photographer based in Los Angeles, who plays the role of a photographer commissioned by a major American magazine to produce a tribute marking the centenary of Marilyn Monroe’s birth (1926).
In the story, the protagonist moves through Palm Springs on foot, an unusual choice in that urban context of the US, before later driving into the surrounding desert. The landscape becomes a metaphor for inner disorientation, a place where the promise of freedom meets the limits of solitude.
The narrative unfolds through Malvina Reynolds’ song “Little Boxes” (1962), which evokes the postwar spread of suburbia and a society in which these “little boxes,” identical houses, contain lives that follow the same patterns, echoing the repetitive structure of the song itself. This repetition mirrors the song’s form, whose verses return like a lullaby. Following this thread, Forquet photographs the pastel-colored houses of Palm Springs as metaphors for this social landscape, questioning the myth of the American Dream.
The project concludes with the real photographs taken by Forquet, shifting the gaze from fiction to reality.
Artist Bios
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Daria Addabbo
Daria Addabbo (Rome, 1979) is an Italian photographer whose work looks at the United States through documentary photography and the language of the photo novel. She lives and works in Rome and has more than fifteen years of professional experience. For nearly a decade she has been creating photo novels, encouraged and mentored by photo editor Marco Finazzi.
Her work has appeared in publications including L’Espresso, D–la Repubblica, Internazionale, Vanity Fair, Marie Claire, The Washington Post, GQ, Grazia, and El País, among many others.
In 2015 she produced The First Step of Tom Joad, a photographic project retracing the journey of the Joad family in John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath, exhibited at the US Embassy in Rome. Her long-term project Profondo familiare was exhibited at the International Photography Festival of Porto Alegre in Brazil and at Festival de la Luz in Buenos Aires.
She has received Honorable Mentions at the International Photography Awards and has been selected for American Photography, both twice consecutively.
Between 2019 and 2020 she published three books with Jaca Book: This Hard Land. Sulle strade di Springsteen, Un altro giorno è andato, and Acque d’America. In recent years she has focused on the theme of water in the American West.
From December 2024 to February 2025 she completed a two-month artistic residency in the United States sponsored by Princeton University. The research developed during this period emerged from a dialogue with sociologist Mitchell Duneier, Chair of the Department of Sociology at Princeton, around the idea that Bruce Springsteen’s songs can be read as a sociological map of the United States. This perspective continues to inform Addabbo’s photographic research on the United States.
Organizations
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Photoville
Founded in 2011 in Brooklyn, NY, Photoville was built on the principles of addressing cultural equity and inclusion, which we are always striving for, by ensuring that the artists we exhibit are diverse in gender, class, and race.
In pursuit of its mission, Photoville produces an annual, city-wide open air photography festival in New York City, a wide range of free educational community initiatives, and a nationwide program of public art exhibitions.
By activating public spaces, amplifying visual storytellers, and creating unique and highly innovative exhibition and programming environments, we join the cause of nurturing a new lens of representation.
Through creative partnerships with festivals, city agencies, and other nonprofit organizations, Photoville offers visual storytellers, educators, and students financial support, mentorship, and promotional & production resources, on a range of exhibition opportunities.
For more information about Photoville visit, www.photoville.com
Little Boxes
Featuring: Daria Addabbo
Locations
View Location Details Download a detailed map of this location Brooklyn Bridge Park – Emily Warren Roebling Plaza1 Water St
Brooklyn, NY 11201
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The views and opinions expressed in this exhibit are those of the exhibition artists and partners and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Photoville or any other participants and partners of the Photoville Festival.
Little Boxes, a photo novel by Daria Addabbo
Featuring Francesca Forquet
Final photographs by Francesca Forquet
Cameo appearance by Martina Albertazzi
