Between Past & Present

“In a land without high-speed railways or modern highways, time seems to move at its own pace. Life here is still shaped by the rhythms of a rural world that has endured for generations, continuing to define the identity of the people who live in it. As soon as you leave the freeway — a boundary that separates the realm of progress from an older, almost ancestral reality — the landscape begins to change. Fields lie fallow, their colors muted by the relentless sun and the southern Scirocco wind.

And yet, despite Puglia being surrounded by the sea, its inland areas depend on water carried in from Basilicata — an apparently paradoxical detail that speaks volumes about this territory. These dry, abandoned expanses are washed in subdued tones that stand in sharp contrast to the green of the olive trees, a centuries-old symbol of the region, now devastated by the Xylella bacterium. Around you, deserted farmhouses and traces of agricultural labor create a kind of open-air archaeology.

When you finally reach the town, suspended in an order that feels preserved in time, you find low houses opening directly onto the streets, fostering an immediate sense of closeness and community.

Through this photographic project, I’ve tried to capture the twofold nature of rural Salento — a landscape that speaks of resilience, memory, and identity. The Salentine countryside, with its austere beauty and its contradictions, invites us to pause and reflect on the enduring relationship between people, the land, and the passing of time.“

Portfolio special mention at the “Urbanautica Institute Awards 2024” call in the category “Anthropology and Territories”.