Roberto Sperotto - A Passion for History

The Vicenza-Schio railway line completes 150 years in 2026. It was built in 1876 to facilitate transport of cargo from numerous wool mills of Schio. During early 1900s, this railway line had different extensions including to Pieve Bel Vicino, Piovene Rocchette, Arsiero and Asiago.

To celebrate this 150th anniversary, recently an exhibition was organised in Schio, which presented the historical collection of documents and photographs of Roberto Sperotto.

 

I had an opportunity to talk to Roberto to about his passion for the history of this region around late 1800s and early 1900s, especially related to the period of the first world war.

This post is about Roberto Sperotto and his passion for history.

Alto Vicentino and the World War One

The area around Vicenza is known as Vicentino. The north-west part of Vicentino has the Alps, specifically the Little Dolomites and is known as Alto Vicentino (High Vicentino) because of its higher altitude.

 

Till early 1900s, the Alps mountains of Alto Vicentino marked the border between the Austro-Hungarian empire and Italy. This border was the site of different battles during World War One.

For example, you can check my posts on the War Cemeteries of Alto Vicentino and on the Centenary of Pasubio War Memorial.

Talking to Roberto Sperotto

Roberto was born and lives in Breganze, some kms to the west of Schio, an area known for its beautiful rolling hills and vineyards. He runs an agency in Breganze for driving licences and their renewals.

Roberto's key interest has been in the crucial role, engineering skill, and heroic contributions of the Italian military engineering corps (Arma del Genio) during World War I, and he has been collecting documents and photographs about it in Alto Vicentino. His collection about the local railway lines is part of WWI collection, as the railways had played a big role in the war. 

 

About his archival collection about history of Alto Vicentino around the first World War, Roberto explained, "There was an old house in the periphery of Rocchette, and I discovered that it was one of the buildings of the Rocchette-Asiago railway line. I started reading about the old railway lines and gradually collected different documents and photographs to have a global view of these railway lines and its different aspects, in relation to the world war."

Initially all these railway lines to Schio and its extensions belonged to a private society, "Società Veneta", and were nationalised in 1906. Alessandro Rossi, well-known industrialist of Schio running different wool-mills in this area, played a key role in their construction.

Initially the railway lines were built in narrow gauge because they were near the border with the Austro-Hungarian empire and they felt that these could be used to attack them. Thus, the main Italian railway with its broad gauge could not be used to bring munitions and heavy machinery to the border.

Roberto took me around the exhibition, sharing anecdotes about how he had managed to collect different pictures and documents, how specific parts of the railway lines were built, how the railway lines were used during the war. For example, he explained that the Austrian troops were on a higher level and thus, the Italian army thought that they could have poisoned the water of the torrents coming down and thus, preferred to carry water up the railway line to Asiago.

Roberto's Archives in His Books 

Roberto has a big archive of documents & photographs about this region and has written 3 books about the history of Alto Vicentino during World War I - 

(1) 1915-1918 War Railway Lines in Vicentino (1915-1918 - Ferrovie di Guerra Nel Vicentino) - written with Francesco Brazzale, published by Edizioni Grafiche Leoni, 2014: The book starts with the difficulties caused by limited railway lines in this part of Italy when the war between Austria and Italy was declared in May 2015. A couple of images about the railway line in Schio from this book are presented below.  

(2) The War Villas - 6th Armed Division & Military Engineering Corps (Ville di Guerra - La 6a Armata e il Genio), published by Edizioni Grafiche Leoni, 2018: This book looks at the villas located along the old Gasparona road connecting Thiene to Marostica and their role in the World War One, and how these were taken over by the military commands during the war. This book focuses especially on the 6th Army which included Italian, French, British and Czechoslovakian troops. 

(3) The Ferrarin Cousins - Men and Pilots (I Cugini Ferrarin - Uomini e Piloti), written with Roberto Mantiero, published by Grafiche Leoni sas, 2020: This book shares documents and pictures of Italian air-force pilots during the WWI, especially Francesco Ferrarin & Arturo Ferrarin, along with others like Leonello Marani, Girolamo Allegri,  Luigi Bourlot. The book also touches on the role of the well-known Italian writer, poet and Journalist, Gabriele d'Annunzio in the war.

Historical Images of Schio from the Book by Roberto Sperotto

Roberto's books are a rich source of historical images and documents from that period. As an example, two images from Sperotto's book "1915-1918 - Ferrovie di Guerra Nel Vicentino" are presented below, which are about the railway station of Schio.

(1) The first is an illustration about the visit of Prince Umberto in Schio for the inauguration of the Vicenza-Schio railway line in 1876. (click on the image for a bigger view)

 

(2) The second is an image of families leaving Schio as the first world war broke out in the nearby Pasubio mountains in Spring 1916.

World War One - A British Postcard

The next two images from the Roberto Sperotto's collection are of a picture-postcard of the Schio railway station sent home to one "Mrs Arnold" by an English soldier, dated 12 Nov 1918 by the war field office, on which the military sensor had cancelled the word "Schio", so that the location is not revealed. (Click on the images for a bigger view)

 

This same image was also used on the poster for the exhibition held in Schio for the 150th anniversary of the Vicenza-Schio railway line. 
 

In Conclusion

Roberto shows that persons moved by their passions can be an invaluable resource for collecting and safeguarding the micro-histories of small places, that are usually ignored by official historians and record-keepers working at international, national and regional levels.  

For the persons of Alto Vicentino, Roberto's photographic and documental archives are a wonderful resource about a crucial period of their local history.  

 *****

Schio - Yesterday & Today

The inspiration for this post came from a guided tour of the city centre held on 10 May 2026, in which Chiara from Cooperativa Trama spoke about some forgotten stories of places, people and events from the centre of Schio during the past few centuries.

During this visit, I learned about the printing press of Paolo Marzari, located near the railway station, who had become famous for his picture postcards, sold all over Italy, in late 19th and early 20th century. This was a period of big changes in Schio, especially due to the development of wool factories of local industrialist, Alessandro Rossi. For example, the railways connecting Schio to Vicenza was built around 1876 and inaugurated by Prince Umberto. The road in front of the railway station leading to the central Piazza Rossi was built some years later.

During the 1980s, the municipality of Schio published a book (Schio: Immagini del Primo '900,  Dall'Archio Fotografico P. Marzari, 1982) about the photographic archives of Marzari. For this post I have taken some of the images from this book and compared them with how those places look today.

Photographs Used for This Post

All the black and white images used in this post are from the above-mentioned book about the photographic archives of Paolo Marzari. (click on the images for a bigger view)

All the colour photographs next to each B/W image are mine. The main reasons why it was not possible to take my images from the same exact place from where the B/W pictures were clicked - some old buildings are no more and many new buildings and trees are in their place.

At the Castello

I have selected 2 images from the Castello hill of Schio - first is the high school built there in early 20th century which now hosts the Liceo delle Science Umane (Human Sciences high school). The passage shown in the B/W image is now closed with an iron grill surrounding the school. (click on the images for a bigger view)

 

The second image is at top of the hill with its clock tower and the Santa Maria della Neve church (St Mary of the Snows church) and the old big Tiglio (Lime) tree, which was removed in early 1900s. There were two big trees and because of them, this area was called Tajara in the local dialect. There were few trees at that time, which were planed mainly after the second world war and now make this hill very beautiful due to the autumn leaves.  

Santa Maria della Salute Chapel

This 15th century chapel was located along the path which came down from the Castello hill and was separated by walls as it passed the Brolo (fields) of Count Da Schio, and went towards the old TB hospital and St. Francis church. Underneath the chapel is the Gaminella water-spring that led to a small pond.

 

Today the walls around the Chapel are gone, a lot more trees are there and only the initial part of Gaminella water-spring is visible close to the chapel, the rest of the spring water lies underneath Via Gaminella in front of the chapel.

Around Duomo church and Piazza Rossi 

Duomo church from 15th century and the square in front of it, Piazza Rossi, are the centre of Schio. It used to a closed square with two exits - the road going to the west, called Corobbo (today Via Carducci) and the road going towards the town and Castello (today Piazza Garibaldi). The next image shows road in front of Piazza Rossi going towards Corobbo, in which Via Capitano Sella was opened.

The next image shows Via Cavour, running next to the Duomo church, which has changed very little.

 

The image below has Via Garibaldi seen from the Garibaldi square.

 

The next image has a view of Via Battaglione Leogra and Piazza IV Novembre, with its monument to the Pasini brothers. This road was built in 1900 and connected Piazza Rossi with the railway station and was first called Via Umberto, to remember the inauguration of the railway station by prince Umberto.

It used to have a Covered Market (Mercato Coperto), now replaced by a bank. There used to be an ice-vendor behind the market (Giassaia in local dialect) now remembered in the name of Via Giasara behind the bank.

The next image has Via Battiglione Leogra (this name was given after the second world war) showing the Pasubio printing press, which is no longer there. On the right, the images show the entrance to Piazza Statuto, which hosts the municipal offices of Schio.

 

The next image has Piazza Statuto with Palazzo Garbin which hosts the Municipal offices of local government in Schio.

 

The last image from this part of the city is Casa dei Canarini (the house of the colourful birds) on Via Mazzini, further along the Via Carducci, with frescoes of guards wearing colourful costumes. People believe that this house hosted the centre of city guards, but no evidence has been found for it.

 

The Railway Station and the Roads Around it

The railway station was inaugurated 150 years ago in 1876. It had big freight port for the wool industries of Schio, which now hosts a clothes shop. However the railway station itself has changed very little, except for the buildings behind it and the number of cars in front of it. 

The road in front of the railway station, Via Baccarini, going towards Sant'Antonio church has changed completely and the church is hardly visible from this point, hidden behind the buildings.

 

As we walk from the railway station towards Sant'Antonio, the crossing where Via Baccarini meets Via Maraschin has a roundabout with a monument to Alessandro Rossi. The B/W image below shows the inauguration of this monument made by Giulio Monteverde in 1902, the colour picture next to it has the inauguration of the renovated monument with the mayor Walter Orsi and some members of the Rossi family, on 29 June 2018.

  

Behind the Rossi monument and opposite Sant'Antonio church is a square called Donatori di Sangue (Blood donaters). The next image shows this square and the St. Antonio church.

 

A little further down the road is the Civic Theatre built in 1907-08. It was closed down during the first world war and then during the second world war, but has been renovated a few years ago.

 

Around the Leogra Bridge

First it was a wooden bridge built in 1742, the stone bridge was made in 1852 and it was reinforced and enlarged in 1926. It connected the 2 communes - Schio and Magre, which were combined together under Schio, 2 years later in 1928. Just after the bridge, on the Magre side of Leogra was a Tiro a Segno (shooting range), whose building can be seen from the Schio side in the image below.

 

The shooting range building can be seen from the Magre side in the image below. It now has some monuments to the Italian marines who died in the wars, a big parking and a popular open air bar called Molo 517 that is open in the summers.

 

The third image from this area shows Via Riva di Magre, the road that goes up towards the central areas of Magre.

 

Carrozzeria Luigi dalla Via

The Dalla Via workshop was located beyond the cemetery area of Schio. Started in 1905, it was one of the biggest Italian constructors of the external bodies vans, buses and trucks, but especially of buses. It closed in 2007. The image below shows the workshop area.

Via Baratto

The last image of this post is of Via Baratto taken from the roundabout of Via Rompato, and going towards St Francis church. Even this area has not changed much though because of a busy car parking, I was unable to include the gate on the right side in my image.

 

In The End

Let me conclude this post with the cover of the book from which all the B/W images of the Paolo Marzari's photographic archives have been taken.

I had a lot of fun, going around and trying to get the same or similar views as in the original pictures. Most of the time, it was impossible to get the same view but I feel that these pictures do show that the places are same.

If you live in Schio or are visiting here, I hope that these images help you to get an idea of the changing histories of our urban landscapes.

 

***** 

 

An Unusual Venice - Giorgio Schirato

Yesterday, on 4 September 2026, a new photography exhibition was inaugurated at the Toaldi Capra palazzo in Schio. The exhibition has works of a young Venetian Giorgio Schirato. 

His images of Venice are about stillness, where the silky smooth water and gentle pastel colours become frozen in a dreamscape. You see a city that still has the magic of Venice, but is different. Some of his other pictures, catch the light in such a way that makes you see something which otherwise you would not have noted. It is a beautiful exhibition.

After the inauguration, I had a brief talk with the photographer Giorgio Schirato (GS), which is presented below. If you are in or around Schio, do not miss this exhibition. If you can't come to the exhibition, take a look at his webpage and his Instagram page to have an idea about his works.

You can click on all the images for a bigger view - these Venice images are by Giorgio Schirato and are protected by copyright.

Talking With Venetian Photographer Giorgio Schirato 

 

SD: Tell me about yourself

GS: I was born in Treviso and when I was three years old, with my mother I went to live in Venice, and I grew up there. We were not in proper Venice, since we lived in Lido island for the first 20-25 years of my life. Only when I joined the famous Venice art school, Academia delle Belle Arti, then I shifted to proper Venice. There, I was sharing a house with some friends.

I had chosen the area of sculpture, as my focus in the art school. While I was studying it, I knew that actually I really wanted to do photography, I was already passionate about it. In the end, photography became my preferred way of creative expression.

Probably because I prefer expressing myself through things that are quick and making sculptures had become a kind of suffering for me, because they needed months of work. So slowly I started experimenting with photography. I like all the different ways of artistic expression, including painting, but I chose photography because I liked it the most.

However, instead of photo-documentation, which means documenting what you see around yourself, I always try to express something extra through my photography. For example, I can use the light - such as using a torch at night to obtain a specific effect that I want. Or by using long exposition times, so that the day-landscapes start looking different - they become a kind of aseptic, clean, smooth.

I am moved by a desire to see and interpret Venice as something which I feel inside myself. I want to absorb the beauty of our Venetian landscapes through stillness and in these kind of photographs, I want to avoid the human presence, so that I can focus on the essence of the place.

I want to express something which is different from the usual images of Venice. Therefore, I am not looking at the well-known city landmarks, instead I want to show you the glimpses of something, which you wouldn't see when you are here.

SD: On your website there are some folders showing different series of photographs, for example there are some showing silhouettes. You want to talk about different kinds of your work?

GS: My poetic photography, if I may call it that, can be grossly divided into 2 main types:

- first is the contemplative and experimental kind of images, where I use colour-photography, I study the site and then plan them to get a specific effect;

- the second are my images in black and white, they have a more graphic impact, through them I try to capture the moment, so these images are more immediate, less planned.

 

I capture both these kinds of images with the help of a tripod, but I try to vary other factors, such as the light, to get a specific effect. My images are not a representation of the reality, they are my interpretation of it. 

SD: How long you have been doing photography?

GS: This exhibition is showing the artistic part of my photography, which I have been doing now for about 25 years. It started as a passion when I was in high school.

At the same time, I am also a professional photographer since 2012, where I do specific kinds of photographic services. You can see examples of some of these works on my website.

SD: In these last 25 years, how do you see your evolution as a photographer-artist? 

GS: I have changed over the years, also because of the professional work that I have done. My professional work brought me in contact with a large number of persons, especially artists with their own ideas and long experiences, and interaction with them gives me new ideas and suggestions into my work. Some of those persons have influenced me as an artist.

 

However, my search to find my way of being a photographer, has been more through silence and interiority, and not so much through describing or discussing with others.

There are days, when I am inclined towards black and white photography, other days when I am more contemplative, and I look for specific effects, and finally there are some days when I just do not feel like clicking any pictures. When I wake up in the morning, I know that day, what kind of work I am going to do. There are days when I can see things that are not visible on other days, it may be something to do with my focus, concentration and inspiration, because it requires me to look beyond what my eyes can see.

It can also depend upon the light of that day. One day, the light may be such that I can't see anything special. On another day, the light may be such that even a simple thing looks different and has a more fascinating impact. One has to train oneself to really see, to discover the surroundings.

 

There are some days when I wake up with a desire to capture people and action. On other days, I just want to walk around in my city, to get inspiration for an idea, then I try to express it in the way that I feel it inside me. It is all about sensations and feelings.

SD: Do you also plan and set-up things to create a particular kind of picture?

GS: I prefer working with what is already existing and not create an artificial effect. I also don't create particular effects in post-production. All the effects that are there in my image, they come from working with my camera.

Even if we are living in the digital era, I try to think as if I am working with an analogical camera-film. Thus, I don't click a lot of pictures, I prefer clicking pictures as a gift, only a few and well thought-out clicks. And, I prefer limiting the use of technology in my work.

 

This is also a kind of rebellion against digital world and there are some persons who prefer using analogical film.

SD: What is the value of photography in a world where millions of tourists click millions of pictures every day, with their mobile phones?

GS: With the social media, the significance of images has been lost. Our ideas of beauty and ugliness have been turned upside down. Thus, even for this, one needs to go back to the older ways doing things, to think and reflect more and to have less anxiety about missing something by clicking a large number of pics. Today we are just bombarded with images.

I feel that it is better to click as few pictures as possible, which means you have thought about each one of them. If you are clicking thousands of images, then it is easy to find one good picture among them. I think that it is more important to click a few, with some good ones, because that requires self-reflection, reasoning and becoming more aware of our surroundings. If you are in contact with the reality around you, you use your capacity for observation.

SD: In terms of AI and your work as a professional photographer, what do you think?

GS: I see it as a potential problem, especially for the images used for advertising. Instead of taking models, professionals, you can create a set and people out of nothing and thus, for the advertising-sector I think that it is going to be a problem.

At the same time, the vast diffusion of digital images has created a greater sensibility among the people towards photography. Since the canons of beauty and ugliness have been turned upside down, some aspects of photography continue to need professionals. For example for making portraits. Sometimes persons come to me for portraits even if they can very well click their own pictures, because they are looking for a specific impact on the social media, so they want a professional.

SD: Have you also done photography for films or videos?

GS: I have done the still photography and backstage for some documentary films, to document everything that happens during the filming and in the backstage.

SD: Thanks Giorgio for taking the time to talk to me.

In The End

Giorgio Schirato's photo-exhibition titled "The Lessons of Water - 450 Years From Titian Till Today"  (Le Lezioni dell'Acqua - 450 Anni Da Tiziano Ad Oggi) is on at Palazzo Toaldi Capra in Schio till 13th September 2026 and can be visited on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, entry is free.

 

I loved his images of Venice, like this image above, where time seems to be standing still and it looks like a dreamscape. I also love his cityscapes where he captures fleeting moments that seem to open the world like a hyper-reality, letting us see things that we would not have seen.

All the images (except Georgio's) in this blogpost are from Giorgio Schirato's website and are protected by copyright. 

***** 

Kimchi - Outsider's Gaze

Kimchi is a photo-exhibition on South Korea by Nadia Bagattin, which was held recently at Palazzo Toaldi Capra in Schio (Italy). The wide success of K-Pop, as well as, that of their TV serials, has created an international image and interest in South Korea. Nadia Bagattin's pictures in the Kimchi exhibition go behind that international image to look at the society, focusing especially on the contrasts between traditions and modernity.

I always find it interesting to understand how the outsiders look at countries and cultures, compared to the insiders. However, I have never been to S. Korea and I am not much informed about it, so to complete this exercise I should also look at works of some Korean photographers.

You can click on all the images in this write-up for a bigger view.

A Brief Talk with Nadia Bagattin About Kimchi Photo-Exhibition

While visiting the exhibition, I had a brief talk with Nadia Bagattin about her pictures in this exhibition, which is presented here.

Q:  You are a photographer for passion or professionally?

Nadia: For passion. I have studied multi-medial art at the Art Academy. I have been passionate about photography ever since I was a child and was gifted a camera.

Q: These days everyone clicks pictures everywhere, what is the meaning of being a photographer for you?

Nadia: My professor used to say that photographers are like painters, they paint with the light, to capture a moment, or an emotion. Everyone approaches it with their own ideas, so every photograph has a right to exist. Thus it does not matter, how many other pictures exist, for me it is a way to share my emotions from that moment.

Q: When you click pictures, what interests you more?

Nadia: I like to photograph persons, sometimes I am a very slow photographer. For example, if I arrive in a park, I would just sit there and look around for a long time, till there is something which strikes me emotionally and only then I click its picture.

Q: This was your third journey to South Korea. When you look back, was there anything different this time in terms of your photography, compared to your earlier visits?

Nadia: It was a very different experience The first time, I had gone very casually as a tourist, to meet some friends who had invited me. I didn't have any specific expectations. I used to listen to South Korean music and watch films and I had a vague idea of what I was going to find there. Later, I became passionate about it, I studied its history, now I have a better idea of its people and culture.

The first exhibition I had about S. Korea was last year, it had a more of a tourist kind of pictures - beautiful places that looked like picture postcards so that persons could feel attracted to visit the country. 

This exhibition is more visceral, I wanted to discover both sides, good and ugly of Korea. Like every country, it also has both, and I love them both.

Q: There are some pictures in the exhibition that look at the traditions, at dresses, at religious iconography and rituals. There are others that look at city life, such as the images of plastic toys in different colours.

Nadia: Yes, that is the aim of this exhibition, it is about contrasts, the two sides of the coin. Thus there is "pali-pali" (Korean way of saying "hurry up") side of Korean culture, as well as, the more traditional meditative side linked to zen, respectful of the nature and culture. So if you have noted these two sides, this is exactly what I wanted to achieve.

Q: If you could choose three pictures from this exhibition, which represent a significant moment for you, which pictures would you select?

Nadia: Let me think.

The first picture that I would choose would be one of these children. It is from a city where they had few tourists. They were very surprised to see me in their city. They said "Hello" to me to show that they knew English.

The second can be the two elderly persons and their boat (left). They were retired persons and were doing volunteer work to clean the algae from this lake. When I was clicking this picture, the man became aware and he told me that both of them were very old but were still strong and active. I like these interactions with people.

The third would be that of the man making an offering to the turtle statue. The elderly man is making this offering underneath the turtle which represents the eternal life, it was his prayer for a long life.

Conclusions

So what does the choice of her three favourite images from the exhibition tells us about her as a photographer? I think that it denotes her attention and preference towards human-interaction. 

I love talking to artists and photographers to understand what motivates them to create. My exchange with Nadia Bagattin was short and yet interesting. You can also see some of her other pictures on her Instagram page.

I was struck by her description of photography as a painting with light. I had a somewhat similar idea when I had called my old photo-blog as "Chaya-Chitrakar" - the painter of shadows.

Kimchi exhibition can be visited at Palazzo Toaldi Capra in Schio till Sunday 27 July 2025.

   

*** 

Exploring Emotional Geographies: Silvio Faggin

My friend Silvio explores and expresses emotions, sensations and feelings through photography. A few years ago, Silvio had a brain-stroke when an artery in his brain was blocked by a blood clot. He was fortunate to survive that experience. During his recovery he discovered a new way of using photography to express himself. (Note: Click on the images for a bigger view)

I was also very much into photography till a few years ago and never went anywhere without my camera. With my work in development programmes in different countries, it was a way of documenting as well as, a way of discovering countries, communities and people.

Silvio goes into photography in a completely different way, searching for emotions and feelings. His images are about capturing moods, lights, sensations, they do not bother about rules and norms of "good" photography.

For example, I love the water-colour painting like effect he can get in some of his images. This post is about Silvio Faggin, his life and his photography.

 

Silvio's Life

Silvio was born in Schio, and his first home was in Via Faccin. His father worked in making wooden furniture and he has a brother, 2 years older to him. While his brother wanted to study, Silvio says that he was not very keen to study and started working after finishing the middle school.

His first job was in a pharmacy but he did not like it and changed it after six months, when he heard about a job with a new company making electric systems. He learned on the new job and grew his skills in this field. Though he changed employers but he continued in this field of electric systems for all his working life.

In the mean time he married Patrizia and they have a son.

During mid-1980s, new design systems were introduced for making the electric systems called Programmable Logic Controller (PLC), which used computers and automation. Soon Silvio also got into PLC and thus started to work with computers. Over the years, this work grew into CNC (Computerized Numerical Control) machines. And thus, Silvio's work with computers also grew.

Silvio has travelled widely for work in a large number of countries, especially in North America and Europe. Apart from Italian, he knows Spanish and French, and over the years, has acquired proficiency in English.

Silvio's Brain Stroke

One evening in January 2018, while in the bathroom, Silvio had a brain-stroke. He was fortunate that his wife heard him and called the ambulance, which arrived quickly and took him to the Neurosurgery department in Vicenza hospital, where the doctors were able to operate and re-open his blocked artery. After about 10 days in ICU, he regained consciousness.

The stroke had caused weakness in right half of his body and loss of speech. After his recovery, he slowly regained strength in the right side of the body. However, recovering his capacity to speak took much longer - he had to work for it with a speech-therapist for about 2 years.

Silvio's Special Experience

At the time of the brain-stroke, while he lay unconscious in the bathroom, Silvio had a special experience. He felt that he had separated from his body and was visiting the eternity in the cosmos - however, these words do not express his experience adequately. He finds it to difficult to express this experience in words. He feels that this experience changed him in profound ways but again finds it difficult to explain how.

Though now he can speak, but often he continues to struggle with finding the words to express himself. Sometimes, he needs to search for the words on his mobile phone. Thus, conversation with him is punctuated with silences.

While we were talking about out-of-body experiences during the stroke, we joked about his famous cousin, Federico Faggin's book Irreducible, which is about connections between consciousness and quantum physics, (which I have just started to read but find it a little challenging to understand).

Silvio's Passion for Photography

Silvio had a camera before his stroke and he used to take pictures with it, like usual photographs. After the stroke, he discovered a new passion for photography, which was different, in the sense that now it is a way for experiencing and expressing emotions.

He explains it with the following words: "When I see something that moves me or touches me in a particular way, I want to express that emotion through my photography. I manipulate the manual settings of my camera, till I can achieve that particular emotion and click a picture. Often that first picture expresses my emotion and my way of seeing the reality."

The way he explains it, it seems that he is not experimenting with different camera settings to see different effects they can produce, but rather, using a particular setting for achieving a precise effect that he can foresee in his mind.

He downloads those images on his computer and on mobile-phone and likes to look at them to experience and re-live those same emotions.

Photography Without Technical Manipulation

A couple of months ago, I went to see a photo-exhibition with Silvio. I was surprised to discover his complete disdain for pictures which are manipulated through the different image-editing programmes. I had imagined that his own pictures were a result of similar manipulations. He was very vehement about it and insisted that he only works with manual settings on his camera and does not like making any changes with image-editing software.

Another time, while talking to him about the countries he liked, he mentioned Spain in the early 1970s, when it had just come out of Franco's dictatorship and still much less-developed. At that time also he said that he liked it because it was "less-frenetic" and more like the life in the old times.

Maybe it is that fondness for simpler lives in pre-technological era, that determines his refusal to use computer to enhance or modify his pictures?

Some years ago, I had written a post about "Zen of Photography", where I had explained how while taking pictures, I feel more isolated and can feel more deeply the things I am photographing. Silvio's experience with photography seems to me like another kind of Zen experience, where he imagines and feels the world in a specific way and then tries to capture that feeling in a picture.

In Conclusion

I feel that some of our intimate experiences are very specific to us and not easy to explain to others. We try to use common words to express them so that others may get a glimpse of what we feel, but it is an almost impossible task. In the end, each one of us is free to interpret and imagine what those words can mean.

There is another thought in my mind. We all need to communicate, because it creates connections between us and others. However, when our ability to communicate in one way is limited, we need to find other ways to express ourselves. So the question I ask myself is - has Silvio's stroke limited his ability to articulate his thoughts in the way he used to do it earlier, and because of it, he has developed a new and different way to feel the world and express himself through photography?

I want to conclude this write-up with an image of a place (above) where Silvio often goes with his dog for long walks. Even I love evening-walks in this part of Schio because I love its gentle hills and the way this area gets illuminated at sunset.

Silvio is a prickly person, easily provoked and he has his specific views about the world, things and life. Occasionally, I like provoking him to hear his indignant "NO!", when he does not agree with my ideas. For example, I wanted to have his picture for this write-up but could not convince him. However, I am glad that he agreed to share about his experiences.

*****

#photography #creativephotography #silviofaggin #schio #altovincentino #veneto