Three years after the earthquake that destroyed L’Aquila and surroundings, the classes of the academic professional courses of photography and multimedia 2011-2012 of the school TheDarkroom Academy of Florence go to L’Aquila for to shoot the situation at three years from the day of the event.
Granted permission to enter the “red zone” from the local government, the students lead by teacher and academic director Michele Pero shoot for a week in downtown and in the outskirts with large format view cameras 4×5 inch and 5×7 inch size, with positive films Fujichrome Velvia 50 and 100, Kodak Ektachrome E100 and with digital cameras as well.
Once back to Florence, having the films developed, we realized that the total number of films shots was exactly 99, as like as the famous 99 castles that legend wants the actual L’Aquila was made from. Hence the name “99 photos for L’Aquila” for this project, even if the final edited number is less.
This is how we made the point of the situation at three years from the quake, exploring both the city center as well as the outskirts with the brand-new buildings made for the people that lost their homes.