The Machine

Mario Sorrenti’s brother Davide passed away at the age of twenty on February 4, 1997, in New York City. His death was caused by complications of his illness and drug abuse. At the age of one, Davide had been diagnosed with Thalassemia, a genetic blood disorder. At the age of three, Davide began nightly treatments with a chelator drug administered with an infusion pump. The pump came to be known in his family as the machine. The photographs for this book were taken on Thanksgiving night, in 1994. It was late, after everyone was asleep. That’s when Mario Sorrenti shot these four rolls of film.

And so another intensely private and unexpectedly beautiful moment has been captured by Mario. On the one hand, this moment is entirely mundane – two brothers hanging together one uneventful evening. On the other, it is loaded with understated meaning, focusing unflinchingly on the fact that the subject is terminally ill.