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“Notes From the Mountain” is a project started in 2009 when I arrived in L’Aquila a few hours after the terrifying earthquake that hit the Abruzzo region on April 6, at 3.32am. I belong to my mountain, it was almost the beginning of my career as a photojournalist. It was emotional, tough, painful, unbelievable. Unavoidable. Almost quoting Susan Sontag, I was literally standing in front of people’s pain. It wasn’t my first time, nonetheless, it was the first time when suffering people were so close to my culture and environment. They were -and they are- my folks. In 2016
-again- several ares of Central Italy were hit by a sequence of strong earthquakes, where -again- hundreds residents died and scores of people were wounded. Towns and villages were destroyed, flattened: thousands of people lost all they had, houses and prosperous communities were erased from the map. The earthquakes hit mostly the mountainous areas of Lazio, Umbria, Marche and Abruzzo, along The Apennine Ridge. Central to the history of this area of The Apennines, is the relation between its residents and the mountain. Medieval villages are nestled on its ridges: churches, houses , watch towers and city walls are anchored on its flanks; the economy depends mainly on the forests and the large belts of grazing land surrounding the residential centres. “Notes From The Mountain” is an homage to this land, to my people. To the mountains of The Central Apennines, to their stones and woods. It is an homage to their silence.
