Marco Zanella's 'Mezzogiorno' Explores Southern Italy as a State of Time

Italian photographer Marco Zanella, born in Parma in 1984 and a member of the Cesura collective, has spent over a decade documenting Southern Italy through his ongoing project 'Mezzogiorno.' The title plays on the Italian word's dual meaning: midday as the sun's zenith and the South as a cardinal point, region, and collective imaginary. Zanella began the project in 2012, traveling across the South to capture landscapes marked by incompleteness, suspended architectures, and enduring rituals. His images—from the Capaci highway on the 30th anniversary of the mafia massacre that killed Giovanni Falcone, Francesca Morvillo, and five escorts, to the informal migrant settlement Torretta Antonacci in San Severo, Puglia, and the annual pilgrimage to the Santuario della Madonna di Polsi in Calabria—present a politically conscious and emotionally open visual language. Zanella's work was featured at the Circulation(s) festival in Paris, which concluded recently, showcasing 26 artists from 15 nationalities. The project resists easy categorization as documentary, visual essay, or elegy, instead seeking an honest gaze under the pitiless midday light where shadows disappear. Zanella previously published 'Scalandrê' in 2021, winning the Premio Amilcare G. Ponchielli, and currently lives in Pianello Val Tidone.