Photographer Richard Renaldi's Hotel Room Portraits series exist as records of he and his partner's travels together around the globe. Now, the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts has an exhibit of these moving depictions of ongoing intimacy that runs from October 2 to December 31.
Richard Renaldi was born in Chicago in 1968. He received his BFA in photography from New York University in 1990. Exhibitions of his photographs have been mounted in galleries and museums throughout the United States, Asia, and Europe. In 2006 Renaldi's first monograph, Figure and Ground, was published by the Aperture Foundation. His second monograph, Fall River Boys, was released in 2009. Richard Renaldi is the founder and publisher of Charles Lane Press.
Read a brief interview with the photographer on page 5 of this story. You can see even more at his website and Instagram. We hope to check in with new images over the years to follow the men in their journeys.
Richard Renaldi and Seth Boyd
Hotel Room Portraits
San Luis Obispo, California
2014
Richard Renaldi and Seth Boyd
Hotel Room Portraits
Villa Mar, Bolivia
2012
Richard Renaldi and Seth Boyd
Hotel Room Portraits
Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia —Portland, Maine
2014
Richard Renaldi and Seth Boyd
Hotel Room Portraits
Carmel, California
2014
Richard Renaldi and Seth Boyd
Hotel Room Portraits
Cartagena, Columbia
2013
Richard Renaldi and Seth Boyd
Hotel Room Portraits
Casablanca, Morocco
2014
Richard Renaldi and Seth Boyd
Hotel Room Portraits
Chiang Mai, Thailand
2015
Richard Renaldi and Seth Boyd
Hotel Room Portraits
Chañaral, Chile
2012
Richard Renaldi and Seth Boyd
Hotel Room Portraits
Pisco Elqui, Chile
2012
Richard Renaldi and Seth Boyd
Hotel Room Portraits
Erte Ale Volcano, Ethiopia
2015
Richard Renaldi and Seth Boyd
Hotel Room Portraits
Nairobi, Kenya
2015
Richard Renaldi and Seth Boyd
Hotel Room Portraits
Grand Canyon National Park
2013
Richard Renaldi and Seth Boyd
Hotel Room Portraits
Harar, Ethiopia
2015
Richard Renaldi and Seth Boyd
Hotel Room Portraits
Bankok, Thailand
2015
Richard Renaldi and Seth Boyd
Hotel Room Portraits
Hawzen, Ethiopia
2015
Richard Renaldi and Seth Boyd
Hotel Room Portraits
Chicago, Illinois
2015
Richard Renaldi and Seth Boyd
Hotel Room Portraits
Karatu, Tanzania
2015
Richard Renaldi and Seth Boyd
Hotel Room Portraits
Logia, Ethiopia
2015
Richard Renaldi and Seth Boyd
Hotel Room Portraits
New Bagan, Myanmar
2015
Richard Renaldi and Seth Boyd
Hotel Room Portraits
San Juan, Bolivia
2012
Richard Renaldi and Seth Boyd
Hotel Room Portraits
Serengeti National Park, Tanzania
2015
A version of this interview originally appeared on Advocate.com in 2012.
The Advocate: What generated the concept of keeping this record photographically?
Richard Renaldi: It happened organically. I instinctually shoot in nearly every circumstance whenever I travel. About a decade ago, I saw a pattern of hotel room self-portraits emerging in my work, and I decided that it was a theme worth exploring. Originally the series started out as "my" project but it quickly became collaborative with Seth sharing — if not sometimes surpassing — my enthusiasm to make them.
Was this ever a hard sell for your partner, Seth, and did the taking of these pictures ever cause less-than-pleasant feelings?
No never. Seth was very enthusiastic about it from the start. He is a commercial architectural and interior photographer himself, and he has always been extraordinarily encouraging of my creative work.
Why in hell do you travel so much?
We really enjoy exploring new places, and returning to ones we have found to be very special. I work on many projects simultaneously and these take me all over the place. Seth often accompanies me. We also love going on road trips and Seth enjoys long-distance driving. We have both been to all fifty states. I shot a large commercial job for Microsoft a few years ago that that took me to eighteen different countries and Seth was my first assistant for much of the job.
The images are such a powerful statement of intimacy.
We definitely see this work as not only a record of intimacy and a journal of our travels together, but also as an affirmation of our commitment to each other over the span of many years. It is also a document of the changes that occur in our physical appearances as our bodies age and change. We plan to make these photographs as long as we are able to.
Thailand, 2005
Hue, Vietnam, 2005
Kyoto, Japan, 2005
Bangkok, Thailand, 2005
Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, 2002
Death Valley, California, 2002
Guatemala City, Guatemala, 2003
Turin, Italy, 2006
San Juan, Puerto Rico, 1999
Sassari, Sardinia, 2006
Pecos, Texas, 2008
Etosha National Park, Namibia, 2008
Cairo, Illinois, 2008
Ashtabula, Ohio 2012
Cairo, Illinois, 2008
Missoula, Montana, 2009
Richard Renaldi and Seth Boyd
Hotel Room Portraits
Villa Mar, Bolivia
2012
Richard Renaldi and Seth Boyd
Hotel Room Portraits
Villa Mar, Bolivia
2012
Olympic National Park, 2012
Dillon, South Carolina, 2011
