Blog Archives
to catch the sun
Now I don’t know for sure that the resident up there on the second floor hung out the laundry when they did in order to get a shaft on sunlight on it while it dried. All I know for sure is that when I saw it hanging there above my head, the sun was shining on the clean clothes and was not shining on much else.
I have to say that my town seems really boring after experiencing the vibrant life on Palermo’s narrow streets. The dullness of it makes me miss Sicily. It makes me miss Sicily quite a bit.
Palermo, Sicily
photographed 9.3.2022
cathedral boys, playing with confetti
The church in Ragusa Ibla – the Duomo di San Giorgio – is stunning. Look it up; you’ll see what I mean. It’s on a lot of Sicilian tourism brochures.
In a stunning departure from what my previous photographic self would have done, instead of making a bunch of photos of the building, I spent my time watching these two kids playing in drifts of left-over confetti on the church steps. And photographing them, hoping to catch just the right moment with them and their game.
And, also, how about that one kid’s fedora?
Ragusa Ibla, Sicily
photographed 9.7.2022
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
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 