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Massimo Siragusa, Il paesaggio siamo noi, 2025

20 Euro

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There is a beautiful text by Julio Cortázar, ‘Some Aspects of the Short Story,’ which, in defining what a short story is, explains exactly what a photograph is. For Cortázar, a short story is a condensation of emotions contained in a few pages. There is no room for gratuitous elements. A short story writer must ensure that all the events present have a precise meaning, that they all contribute to stimulating the reader’s sensitivity, emotions and knowledge. A story does not reveal everything, but shows only a small part of what it has to show. Then there is everything else, the unsaid. The real charm lies in this game. In the importance that the unsaid takes on in the balance of the whole. So, if this is how a writer proceeds, what does a photographer who offers us his story do differently? Practically nothing.’ — MASSIMO SIRAGUSA

The landscape speaks about us. Every detail, even the most insignificant, reflects our way of living, building and imagining the world.

In this book, Massimo Siragusa puts his camera on pause and relies on words, intertwining photography books and literary works in a reflection on the deep connection between places and identity. At the heart of this story is that little piece of the world with which we have an intimate relationship — made up of memory, belonging and affection — which defines us and gives us back an image of ourselves every day. Here, the landscape is much more than a backdrop: it is a mirror, a living body that tells us who we are, our habits, aspirations and contradictions.

 

Il paesaggio siamo noi is an invitation to approach places with curiosity and attentiveness, to observe our surroundings with greater care and awareness, rediscovering in everyday life the possibility not only of recognising ourselves, but also of learning to let ourselves be surprised by what any given moment can suddenly reveal. The text unfolds like a poetic and critical journey through visual imagery and authorial sensibilities: each artistic gaze — from Luigi Ghirri to Richard Misrach, from Amani Willet to Maria Lax — is valued in its unique poetics, restoring the emotional and intellectual depth of the editorial projects described. Siragusa does not limit himself to describing: he interprets, reads deeply, and gives space to connections.

Particular attention is paid to the relationship between photography and the environment, as in Edward Burtynsky’s Water and Misha de Ridder’s Falesia projects, which highlight the urgency of preserving the landscape in the face of climate change and human intervention. Siragusa shows how photography can be, now more than ever, a critical tool for awareness and responsibility, capable of questioning our present and directing our gaze towards possible futures. With the same participatory sensitivity, the author leads us into more intimate and deeply emotional territories, as in Mayumi Suzuki’s moving project The Restoration Will, created after the tragic tsunami in Japan in 2011. In these pages, photography becomes an instrument of recomposition, a bridge between mourning and memory, capable of restoring form and voice to the fractures of life.

Il paesaggio siamo noi is a book that reads like a story and is traversed like a landscape: layered, surprising, alive and dense with meaning. It is an invitation to see what surrounds us. And, in doing so, to recognise ourselves.

‘Analysing a place is equivalent to looking for its signs. Becoming aware of the importance that the detail takes on in relation to the whole means observing the territory to discover its wrinkles, the physical features that define its character. In this process of analysis, photography offers us many tools but, above all, an attitude. Like an archaeologist, a photographer must carry out an operation of revelation, which does not simply mean recording what surrounds us, but offering a key to understanding, an interpretation. More than seeing, the photographer must know how to look.’ — MASSIMO SIRAGUSA

Massimo Siragusa, Il paesaggio siamo noi

Postcart, 2025

14 x 21,5 cm

120 pages

Italian

ISBN 9788831363662

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