Project Detail: Five fires and seven souls

Contest:

LuganoPhotoDays 2018



Brand:

LuganoPhotoDays



Author:

Camilla Ferrari

 

Project Info

Five fires and seven souls

Civita di Bagnoregio lies in the middle of the Calanchi Valley, in the centre of the Italian peninsula. Surrounded by a sea of mist, the village is currently populated by seven people and it is connected to the mainland by a narrow bridge.

It was built 2500 years ago by the Etruscans on a hill of tufa rock, which is now crumbling 7 cm per year due to the erosion.

This fragile condition transformed the town into a touristic attraction and more than 1 milion tourists have walked the Civita bridge in the last four years.

This phenomenon had an impact on the life of the town: Ivana, Mario, Tony, Rossana, Antonio, Felice, Maurizio and Realino, the poet of the valley, are still living there in a sense of precariousness between the solid past of a farming village and the unknown future of a collapsing ground.

I started the project in January 2018. I wanted to understand in depth the lives of the inhabitants and try to portray their feelings of love for the place that shaped themselves and the fear of seeing it slowly vanishing - both geologically and culturally.

The project consists of images and short videos and it is made in collaboration with "Gli Occhi della Guerra” Online Magazine.

The videos can be seen at this link: https://vimeo.com/album/5073087

Photos

Civita di Bagnoregio hidden in an early morning sea of mist.

Realino Dominici writes poems for the village and the valley and gets inspired by the everyday-chang

Tony is one of the seven inhabitants of Civita. He is an architect who left Washington in the beginn

Rossana is Antonio's wife. She has religious iconography all over her house, including some rosaries

Rossana opening the curtains on a wet and foggy dai in Civita. She has been with her beloved nephews

Photographs of Rossana's parents and relatives in her house.

Rossana warms up by the fire while preparing lunch for Antonio, before restaurant service starts. Th

Antonio in San Donato's church, in the middle of Civita. At the end of the Christmas season, him and

Realino Dominici, the poet of the valley, showed me a few valley landmarks, including an abandoned w

Realino Dominici, the poet of the valley, showed me a few valley landmarks, including an abandoned w

Tony is the only inhabitant of Civita di Bagnoregio who can go through the bridge with an Ape - he s

An abandoned chair on a hill facing Civita.