Behind the bank - I search

In the frenetic development of our modern society, especially the western side, most of people have forgotten the value of patience and slowness. Today we devour without tasting, we look without observing, we talk without thinking and we act without feeling, generally speaking. Technology booming and the action speed requested at any society levels, made us distracted and approximate. Quantity and result are preferred to quality and identity. Starting from these premises I started thinking about how I want to work with photography and I understood that I feel fascinated by the exercise of patience and isolation that photography impose to a photographer. Based on the previous considerations, I though about my country, a territory often ignored and not promoted and seen as deserved. I though how I could give value and know better the place where I grew up, at the same time, do that patience exercise so important today. I thought about Italian rivers, they cross horizontally and vertically, they are a natural representation of the incredible variety of the country. Forgotten, abandoned, nobody remember that they cross our cities. They are the perfect mirror of our needs, custom and traditions. Italy it’s so diverse that every new river I start photographing, looks like I’m in a different country. Us, city people, surrounded by grey cement tongues, slaves of a routine made of not enough hours, we don’t realize how rivers have been important for our society development, source of alimentation, energy and transport. Italian rivers, especially the three longest ( Po, Tevere, Adige), cross the whole country from north to south, passing through that vast and flat rural part, that has been and in part it is still, fundamental for the economy of Italy. Italy in fact is a country founded on the small craftsmanship, the small workshop, and the small industry, both gaining value from the resources coming from the land. It’s the small craftsmanship and the family industry that have made this country so important in the history of food, cultural heritage, fashion and many other fields. Nowadays the globalization and the industry development, is bringing new technologies, new big corporations that are ruling the market making the small workers disappearing and all the rural side of my country with it. Younger generations aim to work in the highest level of the industry market and nobody want to do those jobs in contact with the land or using their hands, that made this country so valuable. This ongoing work has the finality to re - discover my country, following its rivers flow and the Italian community that grow along their river’s bank. A documentary that shows the forgotten society that lives along Italian rivers. People that has decided to remain tied to their roots instead of following the course of our modern development. A project that investigate on an unusual Italy that live on the river’s banks, out casted people that have decided to stay were they belong without dealing with the modern life of our cities. Sometimes it is a choice, some others a necessity, in the both cases It is interesting to see how people and rivers get use to each other and start mixing their necessities. The project began in 2016, I started from two of the biggest Italian rivers, Pò and Tevere. I started from the end of the rivers going back to the source. At the moment I’m a focused on the Pò river the longest of our rivers, after that I will move to Adige in the northern part of Italy.