Chiesa di San Domenico, L'Aquila, 2012. Photo: Damiano Verdiani
Themes of desolation and abandonment pervade these photographs, taken by the two Italian photographers Mauro Pellegrini and Damiano Verdiani. Usually, buildings come to represent permanence, belonging, and collective memories, and so it is jarring to the viewer to be reminded of impermanence and therefore, of mortality.
Forty people were killed in Onna alone, and 85% of its buildings were destroyed. Across the Abruzzo region of central Italy, 297 people were killed.
Controversially, this was also the disaster in which six scientists and one government official were prosecuted and imprisoned for downplaying the likelihood of a major earthquake in the region.
These pictures were taken in 2012 - three years after the event - and it may be several years before any of these places are thronged with people again. The ruined and deserted streets have a kind of haunted quality, and you can see why in some cultures, it's considered bad luck to go back to places where earthquakes and other natural disasters have occurred.
Retro della Basilica di S. Bernadino, L'Aquila, 2012. Photo: Damiano Verdiani
Basilica di S. Bernadino, L'Aquila, 2012. Photo: Damiano Verdiani
Provisional modular habitat, Chiesa della Madonna, della Grazie, Onna ( L'Aquila ), 2012. Photo: Damiano Verdiani
Provisional modular habitat, Onna ( L'Aquila ), 2012. Photo: Damiano Verdiani
Pace e via G. Garibaldi, Concordia sulla Secchia, 2012. Photo: Mauro Pellegrini
San Giovanni Cemetary, Concordia sulla Secchia, 2012. Photo: Mauro Pellegrini
Via G. Garibaldi, Concordia sulla Secchia, 2012. Photo: Mauro Pellegrini
View of the historical centre of Concordia sulla Secchia, 2012. Photo: Mauro Pellegrini
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