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old + new
So, while I have broken through my own personal barrier and have begun to include people in my photos, I still didn’t want to include people who were tourists in my images from the Valley of the Temples. (Habits die hard and etc.) Because it’s the top tourist destinations in Sicily, I sort of set myself up for…failure? disappointment?
But this kid ran by and I broke my own rule.
Valley of the Temples
Agrigento, Sicily
photographed 9.32.2022
the sunglasses guy
This sunglasses vendor was happy to pose for a picture. I mean, I don’t speak Sicilian and he didn’t speak English, but I’m assuming that my request to photograph him, which included a gesture toward my camera, was answered in the affirmative, because he struck a pose.
Palermo, Sicily
photographed 9.1.2022
font angel
I love church statues. And if the statue is an angel, swooping down with a shell-shaped font? You know I’ll love that even more than a normal statue.
And then, when I get home, I have the pleasure of editing the image.
What a life!
Chiesa de San Giuseppe dei Padri Teatini
Palermo, Sicily
photographed 8.31.2022
mixed use street
We’d found this market during one of our daytime meanderings. It was bustling, full of activities like the one guy who was cleaning the night’s catch of sardines or the other guy who’d set up a kitchen beside an arcade and was frying up plates of fish or the people using the public fountain to wash dishes or the people enjoying lunch.
But then we heard the place takes on a whole new feel after dark – it was described to us “as like a disco” – so of course, on our last night in Palermo, we had to go see. It was different. It was a lot different. The fish cleaners and fish fryers were gone. No one was doing the dishes. And of course it was too late for lunch. But there were even more people than we’d seen in the daytime. There was a little place selling aperol spritzes. There were tiny cafes all over the place. There were diners. There were pedestrians. (There were four American photographers.) There were motorbikes threading their way through it all.
It was hard to leave.
La Vucciria Market
Palermo, Sicily
photographed 8.31.2022
this felt like a secret
This looks like a scene from a World War II movie, with the rubble, the courtyard, the motorcycle hiding in the shadows. And while there was significant and pivotal action on the island during the way, I am pretty sure this scene wasn’t a relic.
So, how pivotal was the action in Sicily? Here’s what History.com has to say:
The invasion of Sicily, code-named Operation Husky, began before dawn on July 10, 1943, with combined air and sea landings involving 150,000 troops, 3,000 ships and 4,000 aircraft, all directed at the southern shores of the island. This massive assault was nearly cancelled the previous day when a summer storm arose and caused serious difficulties for paratroopers dropping behind enemy lines that night. However, the storm also worked to the Allies’ advantage when Axis defenders along the Sicilian coast judged that no commander would attempt amphibious landings in such wind and rain. By the afternoon of July 10, supported by shattering naval and aerial bombardments of enemy positions, 150,000 Allied troops reached the Sicilian shores, bringing along 600 tanks.
Sciacca, Sicily
photographed 9.2.2022
One Day | One Image 