Breath of the domestic forest

A story about my return to Italy after ten years abroad. The relationship between my parents, myself, and the nature that surrounded us.

I started Breath of the domestic forest in March 2020 when I returned to live in Manziana, a small town in the province of Rome. I had been abroad for ten years, in those weeks of global upheaval my instinctive reaction was to return "home".

For almost a year I lived with my parents, in the same house where I spent my adolescence, just a few minutes from the Macchiagrande forest.

It had been a long time since I wanted to photograph them and the nature they chose to surround themselves with, I started following them on their walks in the woods, during the lockdown period, and for all the months that followed.

Alessandra and Alessandro are similar, they love nature, freedom, and adventures, they are sensitive, altruistic, and open-minded, I have great respect and esteem for them.

The fear of losing them, accentuated by the sense of death we were experiencing during those months, accompanied my thoughts. The natural environment, such as that of the forest, unconsciously helped me to anchor them in a place that I know will remain almost unchanged over time, a place where I can always find them again.

I collected the photographs in a folder on my computer that I called "Observation"; I examined both carefully, to fix and detect details, and changes.

Photography became a means to understand this new phase of life.

I always thought of following the ground flattened by their steps. The singular and unique path they created by following their instincts and desires has always fascinated me, I sincerely thought it would be mine too.

Instead, with time I realize that I observe and photograph them not in order to get closer to them, but rather I begin a process of distancing. Just now that I am so close I'm consolidating my persona, strengthening my own instincts.

It's a detachment that happens naturally, as the seasons change, nature makes everything more harmonious. The same love remains, but it is more conscious and mature.