WE MET

We met a group of happy families – father and father, son and son; little girls climbing on their fathers’ laps; fathers throwing their laughing children up in the air.Unc on venti on al, happy families whose love should serve as a rebuke to those who think they are justified in giving love a certificate of authenticity –and to those who feel they cande ci dew ha tis natural and what is not.

We met an actor whose appearances in magazines through out all the se years can be counted on the finger softw oh and s–w ho ser oleina certa in famous film changed the canon of men’ s fashion.

We met a mas ter o f photography. We asked him to portray a group o f men he considers remarkable, and to tel l L’Uomo what it is he sees through his lens that de fines their special nature (his answer :“a veil of mystery– that strange, impalpable qual it y that takes you to a borderline area between light a nd s hadow, a place where you feel slightly lost, or alien”).

We travel led to feel lost, and al ien. We journeyed to reach a plain i n Hungary. We roamed along the rocks and seasons of the Riviera. We ventured to unexpected corners of the world where seven great photographers cast their gaze: a rock sculpted by the sun in La Coruña, a st retch of sea of f the Austral ian coast, a statue of Lenin i n Transnistr ia, an expanse of l awn i n Derbyshire. And then we went to Iran, to Jeonju, to Hierve el Agua, i n search of part icular heart felt places a nd s tor ies t hat deserved t o be t old.

This issue is a celebration of remarkable people and places, because it is the chance encounters, t he places where we end up unexpectedly, cer tain dance l essons of fered t o us by f ate, t hat t ruly make us who we a re.