For Francesco Bernardone (Saint Francis of Assisi), less was more.

For the latter part of his life( 1204-1226), he chose to live in extreme poverty in exchange to giving all that he owned to others who were less fortunate than himself.

This “less” of extreme poverty fulfilled him with the “more” of being human and the gratitude of being able to help others.

He was a disruptor of norms and traditions.

Where others fled from the sounds of the bells of a leper coming their way, Francesco embraced this human being that was suffering, isolated from society, without love, compassion, and tolerance.

Where others sought to accumulate wealth and material possessions, Francesco could not understand why an individual needed more than one set of clothing; more than a small room to live in and more than the necessary food to eat for the day.

If you had more than this, was it not the human thing to do to share such excesses with the less fortunate rather than accumulate more?

Many of the citizens of the world rush to create wealth and then horde such wealth represented in large houses, expensive cars, clothes, jewels, and other excesses while others live in extreme poverty.

We need to remember as a society that sharing our wealth with others is not an option but a human obligation. We need to retell stories of individuals who acted upon their words to help others.

Francesco Bernardone is such a person, with a story of a life that has left a legacy of the unimportance of material things and the importance of human tolerance, love and caring.

These photographic images are of a man we know and have seen. This man lives among us. He seeks comfort, food, and shelter on city streets and in impoverished areas. Francesco Bernardone lived this difficult, confusing, and painful life of poverty to remind us that we are all this man.

He reminds us that this man could be us and we all need to help each other.By photographing a more contemporary man, the images become more relevant to the modern-day viewer. And perhaps, the viewer will be inspired to learn more about Francesco Bernardone, the man.

The artist Lorenzo created these Renaissance style images based on traditional photographic designs and techniques and also added modern day technology to create the contemporary finished photographs.