Storie di terra

It was not uncommon for him to scratch forms into his negatives to add dramatic counterpoints. Over the years, Giacomelli returned to certain sites multiple times, documenting them during different seasons and crop rotations. He would later incorporate photographs made for one purpose into a series that had other ambitions, most notably to function as commentary on the capacity of both natural occurrences and human interventions to change the character of the land. Sant’Angelo is one of the many *frazioni* (hamlets) surrounding Senigallia that Giacomelli revisited as seasons changed and crops were rotated. He initially titled photographs made at this location Stories of the Land, but he also referred to them as The Land That Dies (La terra che muore), equating the deterioration brought about by the modernization of small-scale farming with the scars and wounds that accompany aging. See also [2016.179.5.1](https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/297416/) for another image from this series. Virginia Heckert, J. Paul Getty Museum, Department of Photographs 2021