After spending time in Spain for a travel writing workshop, I made my way to Italy, to revisit San Sabba — the refugee camp in Trieste where I spent the early years of my childhood. I went to take photos, and to remember.

My friend Gay and I exchanged photographic assignments. This one is “distorted vision," taken on my way to Campo San Sabba.

Then I went on to San Sabba, to create the image below.

Over 60 years separate the two parts of this image. On the left, my father’s image of the camp where we lived in 1952. On the right, I finally found the spot and completed the photo after scaling a wall, crossing live tracks, and stretching my imagination.