issue #17: summer panorama
Caleido tells the travel diary of Stefano Rosselli in degraded places. Welcome to Caleido, an inspirational diary, that narrates many stories: about creative people, trends, travels, objects. / Read the Editor’s letter here.
Diary by: @stefanorosselli
1. If you were to select photographs to paste into your Summer Diary, called ‘Summer Panorama’, what would they be? Thinking back to when you took them, what struck you?
For four years now, in July, I always set off on my Vespa around the Italian coast in search of curious stories and characters. The recurring theme in many of my photos is the paradox of seeing people who, heedless of the degradation, spend their holidays in places that are hardly imaginable as tourist spots. Seeing bathers swimming or sunbathing near factories, often illegal dumps or in other places where bathing is forbidden is an aspect that has always struck me greatly, partly because it is a story that belongs to me, coming from Piombino, a town that many years ago had the same problems.
2. If you were now in that precise condition, and you had to send a postcard, to whom would you send it? What message would you write?
I would send the postcard to all my friends who habitually post on social networks the most exclusive and most expensive places they go in the summertime. Once in Sicily they had thrown an unimaginable amount of rubbish bags under a sign with the name of the place on it. The paradox was that it was called the French Riviera. I would say that I would send a greeting saying ‘many greetings from the Côte d’Azur‘.
3. What is one object you would never part with (apart from your camera)? What emotions does it arouse in you?
Until my last report in Ukraine I had nothing I was particularly fond of. Today I would never part with a small crucifix that some nuns gave me in Odessa after a bombing. Even though I am not a believer I feel it is bringing me good luck.
Ph. Stefano Rosselli
