Silence first

Valle Sabbia is a small mountain valley on the border between the province of Brescia and Trentino Alto-Adige. 
I was born there, grew up there and when I was 18 years old I escaped from it. I happened to be there when Lombardy became a red zone in March 2020. 
I began to photograph the spread of Covid-19 in this small piece of the world, returning, or perhaps beginning, to be part of a community struggling not to lose its very essence.
 Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

The only sound that broke the silence was that of the ambulance sirens.

Valle Sabbia is a small mountain valley made up of about twenty towns, on the border between the province of Brescia and Trentino Alto-Adige. 
I was born there, grew up there and when I was 18 years old I escaped from it. I happened to be there when Lombardy became a red zone in March 2020. 
I decided to stay to photograph the spread of Covid-19. 
What was felt at first was the disarming feeling of helplessness in the face of the virus. 
Whether death came in one village or another, the loss touched everyone, because the population of the valley, whether by kinship, work, friendships, is somehow all connected.
What was first a physical isolation conditioned by fear of the health emergency then gave way to economic uncertainty, and then again to psychological collapse.
All conditions that put at risk the very concept of community, which had to defend itself, help itself, reinvent itself, in order to survive.
Photographing in this small piece of the world for me was like returning, or perhaps beginning, to be part of a community struggling not to lose its very essence.



The project is still ongoing.