Serramento

Serramento #1, Color Photography, Dimension: variable, 2019

This photographic project documents the devastation of the fire that broke out on the evening of 24 September 2018 on Monte Serra, in the province of Pisa.
The final balance of the damage was 1,500 hectares of forests and olive groves burnt, hundreds of people evacuated and isolated for days and an entire destroyed ecosystem. While strong gusts of wind continued to make stopping difficult, the phenomenon was found to be intentional.

Already since the industrial revolution, human activity has changed the landscape. Just bear in mind of other intentional deforestation phenomena, for example like those ones to change woods for agricultural surfaces.
The massive reduction of the planet’s forest surface has an impact on global warming which, in turn, is making the conditions that allow flames to explode in large geographic areas more widespread and easier, as it decreases the ability of the biosphere to absorb the carbon dioxide.

The scientific community has identified anthropogenic activity as the predominant cause of this change due to the emissions of increasing quantities of greenhouse gases into the Earth’s atmosphere, with a consequent increase in the greenhouse effect.

The title “Serramento”, in addition to being the anagram of “Monte Serra”, also evokes the global waming phenomenon.