Comments on: mimi mollica – terra nostra https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/12/mimi-mollica-terra-nostra/ burn is an online feature for emerging photographers worldwide. burn is curated by magnum photographer david alan harvey. Wed, 07 Sep 2016 08:29:49 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.2.4 By: manuela https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/12/mimi-mollica-terra-nostra/#comment-103401 Sat, 10 Dec 2011 22:56:51 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=4216#comment-103401 ciao Mimi, queste foto sono molto belle ed esplicative: la mafia c’è anche quando non si vede. grazie davvero per il tuo lavoro, ho visitato il tuo sito! ti faccio tanti complimenti e in bocca al lupo, continua così…

manu

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By: onelittlewolfe » Burn magazine – Mafia and me https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/12/mimi-mollica-terra-nostra/#comment-83927 Thu, 03 Feb 2011 18:27:23 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=4216#comment-83927 […] magazine – Mafia and me Burn Magazine set up by David Alan Harvey, veteran Magnum photography to showcase emerging photographers work. […]

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By: mimi mollica https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/12/mimi-mollica-terra-nostra/#comment-60299 Sun, 03 Jan 2010 12:03:08 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=4216#comment-60299 Andrea thanks for your comments,
It seems you like more photocopies than photographs.
About W E Smith though, even if that essay has nothing to do with mine and it’s therefore not comparable, I love it to bits.

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By: AndreaC https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/12/mimi-mollica-terra-nostra/#comment-60023 Wed, 30 Dec 2009 15:36:05 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=4216#comment-60023 I only just read voltana’s comment. didn’t have time to read them all so I quit halfway through. Voltana is eloquent and I am sure he does express Mimi’s views but this arguement is unpersuasive finally. It’s not enough really for a photo essay. Maybe if you simply described the images as the appearance of mafioso sicily. Or why not just say this photoessay is about Sicily where the mafia rules, and leave it at that. And then you can have your accompanying text about the mafia but then for me, the text would be about the mafia and the pics would be about sicily. YOu think its one and the same . Well it is and it isn’t. Pictures that don’t show what they purport to show, simply don’t show it. Any way the pictures are good and that counts for a lot.

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By: AndreaC https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/12/mimi-mollica-terra-nostra/#comment-60022 Wed, 30 Dec 2009 15:35:24 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=4216#comment-60022 I only just read voltana’s comment. didn’t have time to read them all so I quit halfway through. Voltana is eloquent and I am sure he does express Mimi’s views but this arguement is unpersuasive finally. It’s not enough really for a photo essay. Maybe if you simply described the images as the appearance of mafioso sicily. Or why not just say this photoessay is about Sicily where the mafia rules, and leave it at that. And then you can have your accompanying text about the mafia but then for me, the text would be about the mafia and the pics would be about sicily. YOu think its one and the same . Well it is and it isn’t. Pictures that don’t show what they purport to show, simply don’t show it. Any way the pictures are good and that counts for a lot.

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By: AndreaC https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/12/mimi-mollica-terra-nostra/#comment-60021 Wed, 30 Dec 2009 15:28:00 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=4216#comment-60021 My first essay to comment on after a long break while I wait patiently for some snaps to upload…

Mimi, I like your pictues very much but I am in total agreement with Anthony and others who found a problem with the stated aims of the essay. It’s probably easiest if I say it like this – I can take a ton of pictures of india – cities, poverty, rural poverty, dirty buildings and so on. And then I can write a statement about about how this is the effect of corruption in india. Well it’s true, these are the visual effects of corruption probably more than any other explanation in india. But somehow I don’t think this would wash either. Without corruption India (where I am now) would be a darn sight more together and look it. Now is this acceptable for a photo essay? You and DAvid apparently think it is, but I would say not unless I write precisely how the process that leads to such and such a building that I take a picture of ended up being so grubby, explain why these people in teh pictures are so dirt poor, why the pavement is a shambles, why the roads get built over here but not over there. I think your shot about the buildings on the hillside (which I like very much) is the one or two or three shots here that seems to be about the issue. The rest really come across to me as the appearance of Sicily, the culture of sicily and really not much more than that. Of course the mafia is integral to the culture of sicily but can you photograph it. You pictures and your text haven’t really made the connections and that’s the problem I find. I think it would work better if working from either the inside or from pics of things like funerals as Anton has done. Anton’s approach is the exact opposite of what Mimi has done and a picture of a man tattoed is nothing as Eva (if its her) says. Tattoos have a historical significance to these criminals that and its a particularity of the criminal class first before fashion. Tattoos in antons pictures are highly pertinent and representative of the Japanese mafia. Can you same the same about a wedding or people on the beach in sicily or an old man with an odd face? How is that man with an odd face an effect of the mafia. HOw is that wedding an effect of the mafia. I just don’t get it and the essay doesn’t show it.

I think making an appropriate link between images and concept/story is the tricky part of creating a photo essay and often here we’ve seen it fail. I will always remember the photo story by W Eugene Smith of the Family Doctor. Those pictures do tell the story. That seems to be too literal an idea of a photo essay for some people’s taste but if the pictures and captions don’t tell the story, then where is the story. If its in the statement then its really a photo essay.

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By: mimi mollica https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/12/mimi-mollica-terra-nostra/#comment-59390 Tue, 22 Dec 2009 08:43:04 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=4216#comment-59390 Voltana,
Thank you so much for your comments, they really help people to understand better what I am trying to do here. Who are you? Are you a photographer?
GMcG, dmartines, herve and Dr. William Richard Pabst Cathey
Thanks so much also to you. your comments are indeed very stimulating. THANKS

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By: voltana https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/12/mimi-mollica-terra-nostra/#comment-59136 Sun, 20 Dec 2009 17:35:39 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=4216#comment-59136 Mollica explicitly states that his photographic essay is about his land, specifically about the EFFECTS of Mafia in that territory, those that struggle to combat such disastrous effects, and the larger social context in which the organization has developed and firmly entrenched itself. Clearly, this focus is lost on many commentators, who perhaps expect something more obvious and sensationalistic. The Sopranos go to Sicily.

In opposition to such blatancy, in professing to capture the ‘backdrop of decay,’ Mollica clearly outlines that his work has a wider scope; that his approach is oblique and is a record of the long, slow, and pervasive aftermath of such an organization, evident for instance in the devastated landscapes, in the economic depravity, in the general malaise of a society that has been seized for ages by such deeply rooted corruption. The “mafia” isn’t merely the ostentatious display of wealth, thuggery, murder, etc., it is a nefarious and widespread socio-economic phenomenon that is generally invisible. Like all old trees, such roots stretch nearly to the other ends of the earth and are exceedingly difficult to unearth. Remnants always remain . . .

Why some ask are the wedding pictures in this essay? It could be to illustrate the kind of moral hypocrisy of the mafia, whom, like Mussolini, espouse familial and religious values in order to uphold an image of normalcy all while being absolutely corrupt. Just as the masked figures, the shadows, and the half-hidden faces may all be illustrative of the obscurity and the very duplicity and dissimulation of such organizations. There is a subtlety to the photographic essay then and, in the end, I think we must keep in mind that what is offered here is not an entire work itself but only a fragment of it, thus any total judgment (genuine critique) isn’t possible.

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By: Herve https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/12/mimi-mollica-terra-nostra/#comment-59054 Sat, 19 Dec 2009 15:54:29 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=4216#comment-59054 all by virtue of the ineffectiveness of the State to protect its inhabitants
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It’s a bit more complex than that, but we’d have to go over how Italy, not just Sicily, came to be a State (your capital letter, William),a country, and discussing the cultures it carried into that national entity, as well as the political behaviours that developped in time along it. Both, culture and politique, informing the covenant, or covenants actually, between ruler (govnmt) and people (inhabitants).

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By: bullockphoto https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/12/mimi-mollica-terra-nostra/#comment-59042 Sat, 19 Dec 2009 12:27:51 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=4216#comment-59042 the lead photo is just phenomenal. so good.

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By: dmartines https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/12/mimi-mollica-terra-nostra/#comment-58986 Fri, 18 Dec 2009 18:32:14 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=4216#comment-58986 This is capturing. I have fond memories of Sicily, my family and it’s surroundings. And in no way, does this alter that image. It’s a point of view I see from a citizen fisrt hand. If you haven’t lived there, then you shouldn’t comment on anything other than the quality of the photos. I love this art.

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By: Mimi Mollica: La mafia et moi | Le Portail de Toute L'Actualités du Monde https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/12/mimi-mollica-terra-nostra/#comment-58721 Tue, 15 Dec 2009 12:17:45 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=4216#comment-58721 […] photographe Mimi Mollica publie cette semaine ses photos dans Burn, magazine en ligne pour photographes émergents: sa série s’intitule «Terra Nostra». Retourné maintes et maintes fois en Sicile, sa terre […]

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By: La Palermo di Mollica » Palermo – Rosalio blog https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/12/mimi-mollica-terra-nostra/#comment-58688 Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:55:03 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=4216#comment-58688 […] Le foto di Palermo di Mimì Mollica, panormita espatriato, circolano da un po’ di tempo sulle testate anglosassoni, prima sulla Financial Times Magazine, poi su Burn, una rivista online curata dalla Magnum, e ora sul Guardian. Mollica ritrae la città nella tradizione da fotoreporter di Letizia Battaglia, ma concentrandosi di più sulle ambiguità della vita quotidiana che, attraverso il suo obiettivo, acquistano qualcosa di inquietante. Le foto ritraggono la Palermo che tutti conosciamo, ma ce la fanno vedere con la lente d’ingrandimento. Sono foto che disgustano, divertono e fanno pensare. Mollica sostiene che parlano di mafia, anche se non ci sono cadaveri eccellenti e pozze di sangue, ma solo personaggi dall’aspetto losco, edifici di cemento armato e cani randagi. O sono invece delle foto di persone normali, in un posto normale, dove lo stereotipo mafioso è imposto dall’autore? Si potrebbe aprire un dibattito, ma prima bisogna farsi un giro. […]

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By: Dr. William Richard Pabst Cathey https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/12/mimi-mollica-terra-nostra/#comment-58650 Mon, 14 Dec 2009 18:38:22 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=4216#comment-58650 Congratulations on a very interesting work. It is unnecessary to parade before a camera a series of corpses to be able to understand that institutionalized crime has its effects on the population, the way they react, their appearance, their integration into the fruits of criminal activity, all by virtue of the ineffectiveness of the State to protect its inhabitants. They become victim / participants abandoned to their own luck, and one can correctly surmise that they want to continue living. What is antisocial becomes a social norm.

Sincerely,
DR. WILLIAM RICHARD PABST CATHEY
ABOGADO Y NOTARIO PUBLICO
nicalaw@amnet.com.ni

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By: GMcG https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/12/mimi-mollica-terra-nostra/#comment-58646 Mon, 14 Dec 2009 15:32:30 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=4216#comment-58646 Loved the pictures – I particularly like the unselfconscious gaze into the camera of several of the subjects.

I’ve read an enormous amount of serious – as opposed to sensationalist – works on the problems of Sicily and southern Italy by the likes of Claire Sterling and Alexander Stille as well as Roberto Saviano’s ‘Gommorah’. Because of this background knowledge I believe I can grasp what the essay is saying but despite this I have a certain sympathy with some of the views expressed earlier – to anybody viewing these images without a significant amount of prior information or experience of Sicily they simply appear generically Mediterranean.

Indeed, I live in the city of Málaga in southern Spain and virtually everyone one of the pictures could have been composed here, particularly the wedding, beach and street scenes. The view captioned ‘Man sun bathing in a polluted beach of Palermo’ is uncannily similar to the view a few hundred yards from where I’m sitting right now, looking towards the port of Málaga. Right down to – I’m presuming – the dog turds and litter.

Nevertheless, an interesting and enjoyable selection – I’d certainly like to see more of the Mimi Mollica’s work.

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By: mimi mollica https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/12/mimi-mollica-terra-nostra/#comment-58112 Tue, 08 Dec 2009 08:58:36 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=4216#comment-58112 Dearest Friends,
I would like to thank you all for your comments.
Some have been quite critical about my work, but I would like to put a few things clear.

First, I will repeat, this essay is NOT about Mafia, but it’s about the effects of it in Sicily and the context in which Mafia has been able to grow.
There are historical and cultural reasons why Mafia in Sicily has found a very easy ground to flourish, and this essay is my account of it.

Secondly, I would like to stress that this is an ongoing project, and I am at the beginning of it, so I will obviously go deeper into the subject, like some of you rightly suggest.

The problem I found with the main critique posed on my essay, is that some of you, expect blood and guns in a story that involves Mafia, but the reality is that there are very little Mafia homicides nowadays even if the scar is still soaring, and this anyway it was never my intended subject.
Mafia has drastically changed in the years, and what I am showing it’s what Cosa Nostra has caused. A few of you have been really shallow in judging my essay as not fitting the statement. If you do not know what Mafia looks like through its effects, then I would suggest to pull back a little, and look with more attention both my statement and my photographs.

Some of you even suggested to take pictures of Mafia members!!!! How ignorant that could be!!!!
Do you think Mafia in Sicily is like a bunch of (very easy to photograph) banditos in Rio? You obviously do not have a clue of what you are talking about.

Everyone is more than welcome to contact me via email, to discuss this further, if anyone of you should feel like.

Thanks to DAH and Anton and thanks to ALL, for viewing my photos.
All the best
Mimi

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By: Francois https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/12/mimi-mollica-terra-nostra/#comment-57963 Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:28:42 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=4216#comment-57963 Thank for sharing. I went on you website and I really appreciate your work. I think you really have a talent in expressing human concerns by photography.

That being said, I find this essay less effective. Some of these pictures are aesthetically interesting but as it was previously mentioned by many, I think the pictures don’t convey the message adequately.

I think the problem is not the photographer skills (you are obviously extremely talented). For me the problem is the obvious limitations of the medium when it comes to a subject like this one. It is really hard to grasp the unseen with a camera. To help the public to see it you need simplicity in the composition, repetition and progression. I don’t see that in your pictures. Aside from the pictures that show “the seen” (2-3-10-14-18) what I see is various and very different scenes that could have been shot near my house in Montréal (1-5-9-11-12-13-15-19-20) if it were not that people look obviously Italians. From my perspective, the Italian factor is the only link with the mafia. The result of that is that I see only stereotypes (two Italian businessman talking in the street = mafia, serious Italian family = mafia, Italian men in group = mafia). In my opinion, the paradox of your essay is that the fact that you mostly avoided the simple approach of treating the subject directly leads to a really superficial account of the issue that doesn’t go beyond stereotypes for somebody who’s not well informed on the issue like me. If your essay is for people already aware of all you have to show this is ok (despite the fact that I would see the point of such a essay). But the fact that you submitted your essay to Burn witch is not an Italian website, make me believe that this was not your goal.

Frankly I think it would have been hard to do better. In order to do so, you need either to get into circles of people closely related to the issue share their ordinary day to day life (mafia members or people who have close relationship with them), choose other medium that are more efficient with the unseen (writing and multimedia) or simply go the humble way and show directly the issues in a more documentary style (like you did for a few pictures). Otherwise you could have named you essay “Italianeness” or “life in Sicily” and I would have been ok, nothing fabulous but certainly interesting.

I think that at the end of the day, as photographers, we need to be aware of the limitation of our medium. Sky is not the limit. This essay shows it.
I hope my comments help.

(sorry for my poor English, I’m working on it)

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By: Manuel Garcia https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/12/mimi-mollica-terra-nostra/#comment-57960 Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:26:31 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=4216#comment-57960 I have read several times here in Burn that the photos doesnt fit in the artist statement, for me sometimes they just can work together and not as an individual pieces,, I think this is a clear example where the text help us out to get in the essay and for me it works. I like very much your work Mimi and you have been very brave for denouncing the Mafia drama in your land. Nevertheless would have been great, I dont know if possible, get some insigth pictures of the Mafia world and combine them with these showed above.

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By: bob black https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/12/mimi-mollica-terra-nostra/#comment-57946 Mon, 07 Dec 2009 13:17:45 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=4216#comment-57946 “i try to photograph thoughts’–mario giacomelli

he most difficult accomplishment in photography (any kind of photography) is to describe…to be able to capture the sense of a place and the consequence of time and challenge of a place: to evoke, on it’s own terms, the life and character (if this is possible?) of a particular place….

as both a photographer and a lover of photographer, i always grant both knowledge and expertise to the photographer whose work i am digesting. I always assume that they know more than i: how could they not, they are are one in that moment, of that place. I watched the essay 2x’s before i read the statement, i loved it…i felt there was a weary sadness, the weight of the images and place (feels like very little ‘youthful energy’ is there (which is why i love the haunting/haunted mask picture). Once i read the statement, much of it make sense to me: the tear of a torn up place…that magnificent cemetary on the cliffside, the boneyard of villa’s unearthed….and the emotion i left with was a profound sadness, a wreckage really…the detritus of a gorgeous place and people that seemed to have been wearied…even the 2 beach shots…of the overhead shot of the young couple overlooking the sea: that weight of loss for what ‘might have been’ had not the area been ravaged….

I always try to understand the author’s point of view, what compells them to both photograph certain places and people and what is the underlying reason to join them…here, for me, it seems to be about the evocation of loss and what that loss has done, from bodyguards to bone-villas to protected politicians to the disappearance of youth to a stoppage of time…..i sense and took away with me much of this before reading the statement (actually, i didnt need the picture with the godfather in the store window), but from the pics alone with the captions….

whether we believe it or not, people, each of us, carry the place of where we are on our faces and in our movements…maybe it’s only a superficial result (our faces and gestures and movements) but with enough sensitivity, it’s clear that people in palermo are not the same as in little italy, toronto….and that is profoundly clear to me as a viewer here…

congratulations on the essay and thanks so much for sharing….

cheers
bob

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By: pomara https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/12/mimi-mollica-terra-nostra/#comment-57938 Mon, 07 Dec 2009 11:44:42 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=4216#comment-57938 Many of the essays published on BURN are WORKS IN PROGRESS. The statements for the most part do not clearly emphasize that very important element of information. I think Mimi did a fine job in his description but, a WIP reminder should preface many of these pieces so we can get on with the task at hand.

The portraits of the prosecutor and journalist are wonderful.
The street work will give nice context. You have chosen a visually challenging project and trust you are up to that challenge.

Mimi, I spent three weeks in Palermo in 1980. Much of the “texture” of the city that I remember remains the same. Perhaps it’s the “Pre-Modern” part.

Paul

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