Leaving this Silence Behind

Text by Moray Mair. Dario Bosio‘s photographs from ‘Leaving This Silence Behind’ follow the E45 highway along the Danish coast taking us into desolate towns and villages, places that were once thriving but are now emptying out, the younger generation leaving the sea for the cities, for more opportunities, for a new life. This emigration, from the land to city, is common to all countries in our globalised world, with the young looking to the bright lights and monied lives of urban dwellers. The life of their parents and those that went before them no longer a viable option as traditional industries are forced to deal with bureaucratic EU quotas and compete in a global marketplace by lowering prices, dismantling unions, laying off workers and cutting wages. This eradication of a traditional way of life, of a culture that is rooted in the land and formed in the sea has huge consequences for future generations. Skills, stories and the unspoken language of rural life forgotten, communal ties frayed and broken, a whole people lost in a plastic world in which the betterment of society is seen only through the distorted mirror of consumerism and the accumulation of material wealth. We live on the cusp of great change. The world has grown smaller, blander, more generic. We’re all being drawn into a global culture that does not differentiate, does not acknowledge history, tradition or the stories that have been passed down through generations of people across the planet. This series of photographs, taken in Denmark, is a metaphor for a problem that effects all of us everywhere.