Rion Railroad it’s a sad neighborhood… He feels that his fate is sealed, that the prospects are those of slow agony, around the train station. The district, born and raised around the city’s railway yard, dies with it. Yes, because the inhabitants of this group of houses felt and they feel like strangers to the city of which they are part. Such is their sense of distance from the center that they said – and still say – let’s go to Avellino, as if we were going to another city.
It all starts with the words used over the years Ettore de Socio to talk about Avellino, the city in which his political commitment and his passions took shape: he has always shown profound attention towards the suburbs, understood not only as physical spaces but also as places of the soul, going so far as to carry out important journalistic investigations, published in both national and local newspapers.
To get to today photography competition dedicated tovisual exploration of the suburbs – all the suburbs, without geographical limits, in Italy and in the world – through which the de Socio Family – in collaboration with the Association Against the wind and with the patronage ofProvincial Administration – he means remember the figure of the journalistrecently passed away.
What is the border between center and periphery? And who decides it? In a society overturned by the revolution (or failure) of new jobs, how people live theirs relationship with places who live? Do they establish an emotional or just an opportunity bond with the context that surrounds them? There is still one community that animates them and brings them out of isolation, of degradation? In the challenge against concrete, do feelings win or the abandonment of the institutions? Does it still make sense to talk about stereotypes? There is a center happy and one outskirts sad? A rich center and a poor suburb? And how important is fate, which makes you born in one reality rather than another?
Suggestions that might guide actions and illuminate the path even gods authors who will choose to participate in this first edition, trying to provide their own personal interpretation of the concept of suburbiaprecisely through the creation of a reportage.
As he explains to us Fulvio de Socio that – together with Generous Piconewith the support of the Roman photographer Fabio Moscatelli – will be part of the jury: «My father’s absence led me to reflect, the memory of his passion served as fuel for this project. And I am happy to share it with two people of great value, two friends capable of always having an accurate, empathetic view of what surrounds us, of stories and people, told respectively through writing and through images.”
- Railway district
He was born in Avellino and has lived and worked in Rome for twenty years: «The photography thing was a common interest between me and my father – Fulvio confides to us – a meeting ground, which often worked better than words and gave us an opportunity to smile together. Ultimately everything started from here, I felt the need to preserve those intimate moments. Then the pain became lighter and I thought about his political experience, his activism, even within the association Against the wind; this is how we imagined it together competition to pay homage to my father’s life, but also to offer the city new perspectivesother ways of being framed, which come above all from young inhabitants.”
In fact there are two categories: Open – to which all adult photographers can register, without any distinction between professionals and non-professionals – e Studentsopen exclusively to students who are at least sixteen years of age, enrolled and attending a Higher Secondary Education Institute in the area of Avellino and its province. HERE you can find all the information there, including details on how to participate: the deadline is set for July 15th.
I truly believe that there are things that no one gets to see before they are photographedhe said Diane Arbus.
So it’s worth putting your eyes and heart on the same axis to try show marginsthe hidden corners, the forgotten beauties: «I don’t know what result will come from this competition – concludes de Socio – in the meantime we are committed and we can’t wait to see anything other than looking at the images to find that visual talent to which to give deserved recognition. We have been working for some time to understand how to show the works to the city, we would like to set up a collective exhibition which we hope will find space inside the former Bourbon prison; for this desire we count on the support of the president of the Province Rizieri Buonopane who has shown closeness to our project from the beginning. Likewise Against the wind wanted to invest in the Student prize, managing to guarantee a photography course and two book vouchers to the three who will be classified. A good, cohesive team has been created, with concrete objectives, which push us to search a young class of photographers, creating in small steps a different narrative of the suburbs and of Avellino. And this can only be done by questioning the new generations, recognizing their communicative power. From here we would like to move in an attempt to build a true festivalperhaps widespread, itinerant, so as to give back to the city a cultural initiative that we hope will be well received”.
Cover image, Fabio Moscatelli
