Of Dust and Light

Seeing, over time

  • Grecanico

    Gallicianò, Calabria

    Black and white photo of Mimmo Nucera ringing a small bell mounted on a stone Orthodox church in Gallicianò, Calabria. The chapel features an arched doorway with Greek inscription, traditional tiled roof, and irregular stone masonry.

    “Wait for Mimmo. He has the church keys.”

    I waited.

    As we walked up, he told me Calabrian Greek had once been spoken across the region. “Here,” he said, “we all grew up with it.” He paused. “Grecanico.” Then more quietly: “People on the coast laughed at us.”

    Inside, the air smelled of wax and stone. “We were Orthodox,” he said, almost to himself. “But we didn’t know it.”

    “Only thirty of us are left,” he said, looking away.

  • Nothing Else

    Pietrapennata, Calabria

    A path through brambles and ferns leads into the Valley of Silence.
    On a plateau, the bell tower and jagged walls.
    A few cows. Nothing else.

    Black and white photograph of the ruined bell tower of Santa Maria dell’Alica framed by jagged stone, with clear sky behind; weathered arches and crumbling walls evoke centuries of abandonment.
    Black and white photo of a white cow.

  • Broken Strings

    Pietrapennata, Calabria

    Figs were wilting on the trees.
    Wasps buzzed around them.

    Broken, stringless electric guitar lying on the ground in front of a crumbling stone building in the abandoned hamlet of Pietrapennata, Palizzi, Calabria. Parts of the instrument are damaged and covered in dust, with a dark doorway in the background evoking decay and neglect.