A Muntagna | Emanuele Occhipinti

Mount Etna and the surrounding area is an island within an island. It’s the highest active volcano in Europe, a majestic presence that touches all of Sicily and all Sicilians but, for those who live on its slopes, it’s a real and significant presence to live with day after day. They simply call it ’a Muntagna – dialect for “the Mountain” – and they do not let its shadow dim their lives; in fact eruptions are considered an unmissable sight, so much so that at the first rumblings you can hear people call out: “The Mountain has burst, let’s head for the summit!” Recently, the volcano has once again made its voice heard strongly and in the first six months of 2021 more then 50 eruptions have been recorded, eruptive columns have risen up to nine kilo-meters above the sea level, lapilli and ashes have covered entire villages around the volcano itself. In this cycle of activity Mount Etna erupted about 60 million cubic meters of magma, especially through particularly energetic lava fountains, as reported by the INGV researchers who constantly monitors volcanic activity.

Verzella, Sicily 2021. Giacobbe,18 years old, and his horse Stella.
Monitoring tools near Piano Provenzano on the North side of the volcano. Mount Etna is among the most monitored volcanoes in the world, with about two hundred instruments that give information on many parameters to the Operation room at INGV.
The interior of a wealthy middle-class family in Trecastagni, a small village sitting in the hills on the lower slope of Mt. Etna. The painting is a portrait of Antonino Torrisi Lanzafame, who built the house between 1883 and 1889.
Pennisi, Sicily 2018. Nicola D’Alescio. Sometimes the fracture that generates the earthquake, called the fault, is visible on the surface and forms the fault escarpment, a permanent deformation which is the effect of the process that took place in depth. After the earthquake of December 26, a huge fault opened, more than a meter wide and more than three deep, in the ground of Nicola D’Alescio, in Pinnisi.
Linguaglossa, Sicily 2021. Dogs are eagerly awaiting the food that Bruno is preparing to give them. Bruno has decided to emancipate himself from civil life and devote, body and soul, to agriculture and to the work that his grandfather bequeathed him.
Catania, Sicily 2019. A volcanologist tries on a thermal and fireproof suit in aramid fiber, aluminum and carbon. This type of suit is designed to deal with operations that foresee the stationing at a short distance from the lava in order to carry out the sampling.
Nicolosi, Sicily 2017. A scale representation of the Mount Etna and the entire Etna-area. The volcano occupies a total area of around 1,600 km2, with a base perimeter of around 130 km. High 3326 (variable), Mount Etna it is the highest active volcano in Europe. In 2013 UNESCO included Mount Etna in the World Heritage Site.
Fleri, Sicily 2019. Church of Saint Mary of the Rosary. On December 26th 2019 an earthquake of magnitude 4.8 at a depth of only 1.2 km hits the south-eastern slopes of Mount Etna causing the collapse of houses and churches in 6 villages, in addition to the displacement of more than 600 people. This seismic event, the strongest recorded in the past 70 years, took place 3 days after the eruption on Etna began. From the beginning of the eruption to the night of the earthquake (24th to 26th) 73 minor shake were registered by the National Earthquake Institute.
Zafferana Etnea, Sicily 2018. A group of friends playing cards’s game. The nightlife in the Etna villages is usually very quiet and encourages youth to live a more calm and homely life.
Zafferana Etnea, Sicily 2021. One of the areas most frequently affected by the fallout of pyroclastic material is certainly the eastern side because the wind direction in the Etna-area normally blows from the western quadrants towards the eastern ones. Zafferana Etnea is one of the villages most affected by this type of phenomena with a quantity of ash that can reaches 1 kg per square meter.
Linguaglossa, Sicily 2021. Liliana (left) and Giuliana.

“‘A Muntagna” is a long journey around Mount Etna and the surrounding area, telling the deep bond that unites the volcano to the women and men who live there, and the extraordinary normality of lives lived in the presence of such a giant, which at any time can generate seismic events. An ambiguous relationship, halfway between the most total devotion and the constant fear for it. They say that when an eruption ends, Etna is already preparing the next one: it’s the eternal confrontation between the volcano and the human beings who have decided to rely on his benevolence.

Rifugio Sapienza, Sicily 2020. Mount Etna is one of Sicily’s main tourist attractions, with thousands of visitors every year. The Sapienza refuge is an historic reference point for visitors and it’s located on the southern side of the Vulcano. It is the highest point of arrival for cars (1910 mt) and from there, through the ski lifts, its possible to reach some of the most significant places on Etna as well as the summit craters.
Santa Maria di Licodia, Sicily 2020. The Silver Goat of Etna is a native breed raised on the slopes of the Volcano. It adapts well to the environmental and climatic conditions of the Sicilian hinterland and is very skilled in reaching inaccessible sites by feeding on the essences of the typical Mediterranean scrub. The valuable characteristics and the small number of specimens – around 1200 head – make it a protected breed.
Monte Ilice, Sicily 2020. Sebastiano,17 years old, is one of the young shepherds from the villages on the slopes of the volcano. For him, the relationship with the mountain is sacred. “I feel grounded like a tree that has its roots here and I couldn’t live anywhere else” he says.
The Valle del Bove is a major horseshoe-shaped depression carved into the eastern flank of Mount Etna volcano. With an area of 37 square kilometers this immense valley allows all the towns and villages of the eastern side of Mount Etna to be safe from lavas and pyroclastic flows. The valley in fact collects the lava flows, recently produced by the Southeast Crater, and any other emission of the volcano before they reach the inhabited places.
Milo, Sicily 2021. The road that connects Fornazzo to Milo on the eastern side of Mount Etna which was the area most affected by the fall of ash and lapilli. Apart from the discomfort caused by the fallout of pyroclastic material, roads that become slippery and dangerous or gutters and drains that become clogged not allowing the correct flow of rainwater, there are no real dangers for the population.
Nicolosi North, Sicily 2020. A house almost completely submerged by lava along the S.P. 92 in the section between Nicolosi and the Sapienza Refuge. The 1983 eruption lasted 131 days and destroyed the Etna’S cableway, sports facilities, various restaurants and businesses as well as long stretches of the S.P. 92.
Verzella, Sicily 2021. From December 2020 the intensity of the eruptive activity increased and consequently, between February and March, paroxysmal phenomena began. Impulsive events, shorter but more intense, where the activity is no longer Strombolian but is technically called a Fontana di Lava and produces eruptive columns and fallout of pyroclastic material such as ash and lapilli. On March 4th 2021, the eruptive column produced by the paroxysm of Etna was more than 10 km high.
Trecastagni, Sicily 2020. Andrea Giuffrida looks out the window in his living room in Trecastagni. “I have lived most of the many years of life that have I’ve been granted to on the slopes of the “mountain” and perhaps for this reason the love for my land makes me veil in the judgment; but I believe I am true by saying that very few other places in the world can be, like this, testimony of the industriousness, constancy and even obstinacy of men, in modifying such a vast stretch of harsh territory, building a unique landscape of wild nature and admirable agricultural architectures”., he says.
A view of the south-east crater from Serra delle Concazze. The summit crater area of ​​the volcano never remains the same over time, on the contrary, it changes continuously. Suffice it to say that, in the last century, only the Central Crater was present on top of Etna, proof of the marked morpho-structural changes that occurred during the various eruptions.
Linguaglossa, Sicily 2021. The Mother Superior, Sister Maria Benedetta (in the center), recites the Rosary together with two other sisters in the Church of the Immaculate Conception. They are part of FIAT TOTUS TUUS, a contemplative Marian community inspired by the spirituality and life of the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta.
Zafferana Etnea, Sicily 2021. One of the areas most frequently affected by the fallout of pyroclastic material is certainly the eastern side because the wind direction in the Etna-area normally blows from the western quadrants towards the eastern ones. Zafferana Etnea is one of the villages most affected by this type of phenomena with a quantity of ash that can reaches 1 kg per square meter.
Bronte, Sicily 2019. Inside the “Circumetnea” , the historic 110 km long railway line, which almost completely surrounds the volcano and crosses the various Etna villages. Over time, the railway has undergone minor changes to the route, some of which following interruptions due to Etna’s lava flows. Today it is also used for tourism, an original and alternative way to visit the landscape around the volcano.

 

BIO

Emanuele Occhipinti is an Italian documentary photographer. In 2012 he ended a three-year course at “Scuola Romana di Fotografia” gaining a master degree in photojournalism. In 2016 he studied the International Program of Photojournalism at the DMJX, Danish School of Media and Journalism. He also attended different workshops with George Georgiou, Rob Hornstra, Lorenzo Castore, Joachim Schmid amongst others. He mainly work on personal projects focusing on social, environmental and anthropological issues. His work has appeared in different publications and has been recognised in several awards. He lives in Brighton (UK)

Website: www.emanueleocchipinti.com

Instagram: @emanuele.occhipinti

 

Photo Essay edited by Alejandra Martínez Moreno