Paul D’Amato says that two threads run through his work as a photographer: “an interest in community and a fascination with the drama of human psychology. The first determines where I go and the second what I do when I get there.” He sees community as a “pool of energy which I dive into and photograph from the inside looking out, instead of the outside looking in.” D’Amato’s process involves asking strangers if he can take their photograph. He describes the result as a kind of performance and collaboration on both sides of the camera. “In the end, the work is about establishing and playing with a sequence of relationships: between myself and my subjects, between the formal elements in the pictures, between one image and another, and between the viewer and the photograph.”