On a warm, sunny September afternoon years ago, I was learning to shoot film on a vintage 35mm Minolta camera. I stumbled across New York City’s San Gennaro festival. The bright colors and motley foods provided a spectacular palette for experimenting.

San Gennaro titillates a full spectrum of senses, but none more than taste, a triumph of gastronomic excess. It is the culmination of the abbondanza, the great abundance, a concept celebrated by Italians arriving in America to describe the bounty of food and wealth they found.