Traces is a silent journey, an exercise in mindfulness. It is a book that asks to be viewed without haste, allowing the images to sink in gradually, much like the landscape they depict. It offers no reassurances, but rather a window of opportunity for listening and connection: where photography ceases to describe and begins to question.
The book is based on the “Sardinia Commission” by Vanessa Winship and George Georgiou, a project by AR/S – Arte Condivisa in Sardinia and promoted by the Fondazione di Sardegna.
The work of the two British authors, who have been active for over twenty years in documentary and research photography, focuses on the island’s western coast and inland areas, presenting a narrative that avoids any form of sensationalism. It preserves and makes accessible an experience of residency and production that contributes to the construction of a shared visual heritage, gathering images that engage with the history, geography, and identity of the places, shaping an open narrative, free of didacticism, that invites us to linger in ambiguity.
Fortified landscapes, abandoned mines, depopulated villages, and derelict infrastructure compose a stark and contemplative panorama. The near-total absence of the human figure amplifies the density of the images, allowing minute details—an eroded wall, an empty window, a crumbling sign—to emerge as traces of lives and stories that endure over time.
