“We heard a boom and then another one. The earth shook and then all was quiet. With time we got used to that, it’s the volcano” (Gaetano a laborer in Pisciarelli – February 2017)
.
The Phlegraean Fields, one of the most densely inhabited places in the world, are sitting on a super-volcano. The area extends across the entire bay of Pozzuoli, Naples, and consists of a 13km-wide cauldron-like depression with 24 craters. Half a million people learnt to coexist with the “volcano” and the constant eruptive activity of gas or mud, with earthquakes and with the bradyseism, a phenomenon causing the soil to slowly swell and deflate for several meters. According to the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, the “calderas” recently showed clear signs of unrest and even if it’s not clear exactly if or when the eruption will do a final blast, this would be very dangerous. Life on the Phlegraean Fields is a mixture of anxiety, hope and resignation, in an unique blend of emotional and geographical landscape, where the connections of humans with the nature and God is under the spell of the Volcano.
Jean-Marc Caimi and Valentina Piccinni projects focus both on documentary photography and personal creative projects. Their features are regularly published in the press and web medias worldwide. The duo published three books: “Same Tense” (Witty Kiwi Books), “Daily Bread” (T&G publishing) and “Forcella” (Witty Kiwi Books) an extensive work about a mafia ridden neighborhood in Naples. In 2017 they received the Gomma Grant (UK) for Best Black and White Documentary Work, for the project “This Land Is My Land” about the fading rural culture in the South of Italy.