TEPHRA
Tephrite, or tephra, is the pyroclastic material of heterogeneous
composition and size produced during a volcanic eruption, from ashes
to large boulders.
Sigurdur Thorarinsson
Sigurdur Thorarinsson
This work is a personal photographic study of the vast volcanic area that surrounds the city of Naples and its province. It is an imaginary journey into a parallel world, composed of stone, forests and ancient remains. In this undefined land, suspended in time, careful observation of the details of the landscape can reveal fairy-tale and demonic characters, through a pareidolic illusory effect.
A mountain that for many of us is home as well as a volcano. A complex land, full of charm, where ancient rites and traditions are handed down, and where good and evil, light and dark, and black and white coexist in their infinite gradations and form a single work, as in a photograph.
This is a tribute to the places of my childhood and adolescence, and to nature, its strength and its mysteries.
Inner walking, the city outside
The city is out there,
but what we see depends on how we interpret it.
Each of us captures our own fragment.
Milan constantly scratches at my ankles,
but I keep walking,I keep observing.
When a wolf said hello to me
“The wolf is an animal that lives in a pack; it generally does not lead a solitary life except during certain phases of its youth, when it usually separates in order to form a pack of its own.”
This work is conceived as a family album, where photographs of its members interact with images of the places they frequent or have frequented.
Mine is a family, like many others, where for various reasons, we live many kilometers apart from one another. When I stop to reflect on this, I like to draw a parallel with the natural world. If we think about plants, for example, some scientific studies have shown that trees, even when far apart, are able to communicate through their roots, which are connected by an extensive network of bacteria, fungi, and microorganisms. Through this network, they not only exchange nutrients but also transmit information, such as the presence of nearby parasites.
I find the parallel with the wolf deeply fascinating. The wolf is also the symbol of the Sila, a plateau in the Calabrian Apennines, where my wife’s family originates. The way wolves live within a pack, their family unit, seems very similar to our own.
Calabria is also the region where my wife and I chose to have our daughter Irene born.
This is how I now imagine my family: like different forests, distant in space, yet connected by this dense underground network through which, like trees, we protect and care for one another.
DREAM ON
Keep playing again
© LUIGI MOSCA — 2025
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Scientific explorer. Italian photographer and visual artist, with a background in science and communication.