Telling the story of the territory in which you live and are immersed every day is not an easy task. Being objective and knowing how to look into yourself, starting from your roots all the way to the present made up of lights and shadows, is an exciting challenge. For this we need an external gaze – better even if different and distant- that knows how to capture the everyday, invisible to those who look at it with the same eyes. A gaze that can reveal with the beauty of a single shot the identity of a territory and with the lightness typical of photography things that you do not know or do not want to know.
It is as a result of these fundamental and important needs that this project came to light. It is funded by the tender Strategy Photography 2022 promoted by the Directorate General Contemporary Creativity of the Ministry of Culture, in collaboration with the Province of Lodi and the Festival of Photography Ethics.
At the beginning of this year, the photographer Gabriele Cecconi, a world renowned reportagist with experience on environmental issues, has arrived in Lodi to lay his expert eyes on this territory. The initiative of commissioning a photographic exploration is significant, not only for the anthropological characteristics of this area, but also for the water crisis that in 2022 hit northern Italy, with dramatic consequences on the economic and social fabric of the area. Generation after generation, water has been a resource that has enabled the livelihood and development of one of the most productive and fertile economic areas in Europe. All this is now in danger and the greatest risk is the loss of peasant civilization.
After months of intense work this investigation has come to completion: “Elegia lodigiana” is a profound work that tells the story of the Po Valley and its infinite green extensions, interrupted only by the rivers that collect along their course the tales of those who inhabit this territory. This exploration tells a story that enables us to see Lodi in a new light. The project will culminate with an exhibition which will be included in the official program of the 2023 Festival and will be accompanied by a photographic book.

Copyright foto: © Gabriele Cecconi