By Will Matsuda
Samantha Casolari’s photographs shimmer with a warm haze that feels like flickering candlelight. The rich amber tones are serene and beautiful, so I laugh when she tells me that her biggest influence is classic black-and-white war photography. Calling from her home in Brooklyn, New York, on a cool November morning in 2020, she explains, “War has been one of my main interests since I was a young kid. In college, I studied conflict resolution and security studies. I went on to work in refugee camps.” She tells me that if I saw her bookshelf, I would run out the door.