The odyssey of the small Italian islands

300 photos, captured “dopo l’estate” (after the summer), between 1987 and 2014, in Stromboli, Capri, Elba, Capraia, Favignana, Giglio, Levanzo, Ischia, Procida, Filicudi, Vulcano, Panarea, Alicudi… Both a photographic odyssey and a declaration of love for Italy, this exceptional book marks a new episode in the companionship between Almayuda and Bernard Plossu, the photographer who walks and travels.

“Known for enhancing details, promoting ‘non-decisive’ moments, rehabilitating light that others shy away from, Plossu delivers with this significant photographic corpus – over 300 images – a reading of the Italian island landscape that unfolds over time, like a wine reveals its length in the mouth. His black-and-white photographs magnify simple moments irrigated by the poetry of the day.”

These beautiful, precise words from Walter Guadagnini, director of the Centro Italiano per la Fotografia in Turin, say almost everything about Bernard Plossu’s new major work: “The odyssey of small Italian islands”.

Few men. A powerful wind..

In 1987, thanks to the French Institute in Naples, Bernard Plossu took a photographic trip to Stromboli, in the Aeolian Islands. The following year, he spent a few months in Lipari with his wife, photographer François Nuñez, and their son. From Stromboli, he spread out to other islands, accompanied by a few photographer friends who joined him.

Thus began his Odyssey, longer than that of Ulysses, lasting almost 30 years, from 1987 to 2014. In these island landscapes, “Few men. A strong wind. Sea spray, smells.” (1) In short, the ideal for Bernard Plossu, who can “ carry out and fully express his tireless quest for the infra-ordinary (to use Georges Perec’s term) and the sur-banal (to use the term coined in his youth by the photographer himself).” (2)

Hundreds of images of an Italy devoid of vestiges or glorious past emerge from the “relentless but extremely calm” strolling of a walker. “ (It’s) in a nature that sometimes gives way to human presence, only to take over the whole scene, that these photographs are born, alternating landscapes and human traces in a balance that perfectly matches the tempo of life in these places.” (2)

A timeless world

The first photos in the book are family snapshots. It’s as if, from the outset, the book has been placed under the sign of eternity. Or a timelessness that Walter Guadagnini emphasizes. “It’s true… that in these islands the atemporal element is strongly present, because the sea and the sun influence the buildings and very quickly strip them of the patina of newness…” (2)

Timelessness is reinforced by “the absence of major roads and long distances (which) dispenses with the need to multiply means of locomotion…” . Or the fact that “there is often only one road linking the main places on the island, the rest being left precisely to the ability of men and animals to move about on their legs and paws…”.

This brings us back to the theme of walking in nature, “a kind of yoga” for Bernard Plossu. Here, walking is essential to photography: “walking is a necessity, because if you don’t go from one place to another, you won’t see any photos.”

This is implicitly confirmed by Walter Guadagnini: “The geographical configuration of these islands, combined with the scarcity of means of communication… paradoxically represents the ideal condition for Plossu’s activity: it immerses the photographer in his preferred environment and allows him to concentrate exclusively on observing his surroundings and taking pictures.”

“L’odyssée des petites îles italiennes” is a moving journey into the land of emotions. A must-see!

(1) Presentation of a photography book to be published by Textuel
(2) Preface by Walter Guadagnini

After Plossu Cinéma, Maroc 1975, Carnets d’inédits, Jardin de pierres, La Montagne Blanche, Roma, L’odyssée des petites îles italiennes is the seventh collaboration between the Almayuda Foundation and Bernard Plossu.

Useful link :
https://www.editionstextuel.com/