Photography by Fahnon Bennett Artist Manuel Santelices thought Dutchess County might be a mistake. A big one. “We decided to rent a house there in fall 2012, while in Milan,” recalls his husband, David Ashen, “and Manuel was like, ‘Don’t rent the house. We’re not gonna go up there.’” The problem wasn’t the area, exactly. The pair, who met on America Online in 2000 (ah, the romantic screeching of dial-up modems), had been spending time visiting friends in Gallatin and loved their weekends in the Hudson Valley. The problem was what Ashen calls “the most expensive rental in the world.”…
