How to Secure a country

Salvatore Vitale is a Swiss-based photographer born and raised in Palermo. His research lies into a documentary and research field and, in particular, in how several approaches to photography and image-making can be used to enhance visual storytelling. He is also the founder of YET magazine.

Switzerland is well-known as one of the safest countries on earth – it is seen as an example of efficiency and efficacy. But one of the central reasons that such a country exists is the development of a culture based on protection and safety, which is supported by the presence and production of national security. How to Secure a Country explores the ways in which things that are elusive – such as safety and security – becomes stabilized through standard operating procedures. The aim is to capitalize on the actual fluidity or abstractness of the country’s security measures, as well as to focus upon the “matter-of- fact” types of instructions, protocols, bureaucracies and clear-cut solutions that are applied to what is, in fact, a highly fleeting phenomenon.