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Sicilian cherub
We stepped into this church to look around, but there was so much going on that it was hard to really see anything. And harder still to get photographs that conveyed the Baroque details, the Catholic imagery, the oldness of it all.
But there WAS a particular cherub that I liked.
Chiesa dell’Immacolata Concezione
Palermo, Sicily
photographed 9.3.2022
this light is a gift from far away
Our roving band of photographers spent a long time one afternoon at the Palermo harbor photographing four or five people who were fishing. They didn’t seem to mind that we were back there, working all the things (light! framing! angles! exposure!) that photographers like to mess around with. In fact, at one point, they even showed us the white bucket that held their catch and we had a nice conversation with them (even though they didn’t speak English and we didn’t speak Italian).
We’d actually gone to the harbor in hopes of getting some glorious sunset photos; when it became apparent that wasn’t going to work out, we turned our focus (so to speak) elsewhere. And that’s a good lesson: even if the thing you thought you were going to photograph doesn’t work out, something else will show up to fill the void. And honestly, this photo is way better than anything sunset-related would have been.
Palermo, Sicily
photographed 8.30.2022
behold the man
In addition to seeing a lot of wall-mounted shrines in Palermo (as I mentioned yesterday) I spotted some larger ones as well, like this one on the side of Chiesa di Sant’Antonio Abate. Walking around Palermo was a visual delight – there was something interesting/new/photo-worthy at every turn. If I’d stopped to think about it, it would have been overwhelming. Instead I just kept looking, kept shooting, kept immersing myself in everything the city and its residents had to offer.
As I write this, I’ve been home for eight days; I’m still writing in my travel journal every day because so many things happened on the trip that I couldn’t get it all written down in real time. That journal started out real organized, with things documented chronologically. It quickly descended in chaos, which I tell myself will make it more interesting for future reader(s) who will be treated (if that’s the right term?) to a stream-of-consciousness telling of Important Things I Just Remembered.
Palermo, Sicily
photographed 8.31.2022
wall shrine, with flower
I got my start as a photographer by way of a long project where I documented roadside crosses and other memorials; I think all the years of being always-vigilant for those locations has permanently set my brain to seek out similar things. I don’t think I am actively looking for them, but there were numerous times in Palermo that I’d glance over at a wall and there’d be a shrine right there, as thought it had been expecting me.
Palermo, Sicily
photographed 8.29.2022
boys at play (beside World War II ruins)
As unbelievable as it seems to someone whose city was never bombed, there are still building ruins in the heart of Palermo left over from 1943, when Allied and German forces battled for control of the island. (Read more here.)
One of the ruins was very near where we stayed, and the wire fencing on the left side of the photo surrounds the rubble. But, even with war ruins that are almost eighty years old, life in the rest of the neighborhood goes on, with boys playing a made-up game as two young women strolled along. (And as a quartet of photographers watched and, possibly, made more than a few images.)
Palermo, Sicily
photographed 8.31.2022
One Day | One Image 