Project Detail: Life as a Charcoal bearer

Contest:

Reportage and Documentary 2022



Brand:

LuganoPhotoDays



Author:

Lello Fargione

Status:
Selected

 

Project Info

Life as a Charcoal bearer

Life as a Charcoal bearer

"In the woods of Serra San Bruno, a small town in Calabria, there are only a few families that produce coal, an ancient Phoenician" art "handed down from father to son, now almost extinct. The Carbonaio's work is incessant and without temporal knowledge so much that it requires night shifts and that is why the whole family is involved.
The best wood is chosen and structures that look like small volcanoes are built: the "Scarazzi", inside which the wood is cooked. It is a long process that takes up to a month: a pile of thick logs forms a flue in the center and gradually thinner pieces of wood are added until the hemispherical construction is completed, which will be covered with moist earth.
Once cooked, the sheaf will be dug up and packed in jute bags ready for distribution. Coal once mainly used for heating, is now used only for catering ".

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