Hugo Passarello was young and starry-eyed when he first encountered “Hopscotch” by the Argentine novelist Julio Cortázar. Like most readers, he was enthralled by the stream-of-consciousness narrative that shattered notions of structure. Set in Paris and written episodically, the novel boasts 155 snapshots which Cortázar gives readers three options to move through: progressively; hopscotching with instructions; or blazing a unique path.
“Cortázar toyed with the idea of a book being a story you could play with,” said Mr. Passarello, 33. “I was inspired to do the same with photos.”
Moving to Paris himself and wondering how to assemble a project based on a novel of unexpected stories, Mr. Passarello produced “Rayuela,” Spanish for hopscotch, a series of portraits of friends, readers and contemporaries of Cortázar in 2014, the year the writer would have turned 100. The portraits are now on view in “Unexpected Photo Essay on Cortázar,” which opened Tuesday at the Lycée Français in New York.
Mr. Passarello’s work is a dialogue between text and image. Beginning in the fall of 2013, he used social media to find 11 participants willing to choose their favorite passage in the novel and let him take a portrait in the passage’s Paris location.
But the concept intrigued many more.
“People kept reaching out, wanting to participate,” Mr. Passarello said. Soon, he was taking six portraits every weekend, each preceded by a conversation to understand his participant’s unique attachment to the novel.
One depicts Erica, a Spanish teacher, lying against the bank of the Seine, pensive and calm (Slide 3). In her youth, Erica was drawn to the book’s metaphysical voyages. She chose a passage that presents the idea of purposely drowning oneself as liberating and beautiful – if done in the Seine.
Another of Mr. Passarello’s portraits portrays the Argentine artist Julio Silva, a close friend of Cortázar. Through Mr. Passarello’s lens Mr. Silva is solemnly depicted at Cortázar’s grave, turned away from the sculpture he made to mark his friend’s tomb (Slide 15).
“This project was a test,” Mr. Passarello said of his experience photographing multiple subjects. “It challenged my ability to quickly get to know strangers and get them to expose themselves.”
Using black-and-white also allowed him to make his photos an homage to a very different Paris, depicted a half-century earlier by Cortázar. “Paris today is less bohemian, and much more expensive to live in,” he said. Yet many buildings have remained the same. “Black-and-white allowed me capture the same places Cortázar captures, at another moment in time.”
Despite the passage of decades, Mr. Passarello’s project proves with each portrait and personal story the enduring — if not magnified — strength of Cortázar’s words.
“Basic, mundane stories told by great storytellers become fantastic, memorable ones,” Mr. Passarello said. “Can I tell a story with that same power, but using images?”
Hugo Passarello’s portraits are now on view in “Unexpected Photo Essay on Cortázar,” which opened Tuesday at the Lycée Français in New York.
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