Tephra
by Luigi Mosca
portfolio special mention call 'URBANAUTICA INSTITUTE AWARDS 2021', 2021
Category: Anthropology and Territories
Category Award: ANTHROPOLOGY AND TERRITORIES; NATURE, ENVIRONMENT AND PERSPECTIVES; MEMORIES AND TRADITIONS
"Tephrite, or tephra, is the pyroclastic material of heterogeneous composition and size produced during a volcanic eruption, from ashes to large boulders."
Sigurdur Thorarnisson, volcanologist.
This work is a personal photographic study of the vast volcanic area that surrounds the city of Naples and its province. It is an imaginary journey into a parallel world, composed of stone, forests and ancient remains. In this undefined land, suspended in time, careful observation of the details of the landscape can reveal fairy-tale and demonic characters, through a pareidolic illusory effect.
A mountain that for many of us is home as well as a volcano. A complex land, full of charm, where ancient rites and traditions are handed down, and where good and evil, light and dark, and black and white coexist in their infinite gradations and form a single work, as in a photograph.
This is a tribute to the places of my childhood and adolescence, and to nature, its strength and its mysteries.