THE FOLDS OF THE ALPS
Why we still photograph mountains


The role of the photographer must become a ritual practice of those who wish to perceive nature and its course, focusing through the lens into a small portion of the mountain trying to reflect upon the entirety, turning the photographic practice into a contemplative gesture.
My journey started 15 years ago after reading Tucket, Freshfield and
a 1889 book on the origin of the mountains called “The folds of the Apuan Alps”, realising that XX century expeditions are no longer remote nor dangerous,
since the peril has become the very soil around us; the Inventory of landslides in Italy counts 620.808 slides to date. What was then a fold now is dangerous terrain.
I soon turned my practice into contemplation rather the documenting the magnitude of the Alps enormous folds, because observing the detail is the key to discerning the process
​of geology in terms of circle of life.
To photograph it means to establish a relation with what seems inevitable
yet unacceptable; man doesn’t accept nature course, nor being part of it.
The photographer on rocky ridges is the embodiment of the ritual
as well as the epitome of the contemporary pioneer, who no longer needs to explore,
rather experience the terrain.
Witnessing, therefore photographing the detail of mountains terrain reflects
inescapable man’s doing.
Observing the mountain faces us with our ineluctable temporality, since we seem so insignificant compared to geological variations.