Every month TerraProject selects one feature among the submissions received. To find out how to submit click here.
This month we show the work by Ivano Di Maria about religious communities in Italy.
"Our Religion" – Religious Communities in Italy
I created this project about the gestures and rituals of faith while thinking about the many religious communities present throughout Italy. In this case, I have chosen to focus on four of these groups: the Sikh community in Novellara, in the province of Reggio Emilia; the Christian Orthodox community in the city of Modena; the Catholic Ghanese communities in the cities of Reggio Emilia and Modena; the Buddhists community of the Fudenji Zen temple in the city of Fidenza, in the province of Parma. One concept that all these religions have in common is "transcendence", which is manifested in many ways depending on the geographical and cultural origin of the people that practice it. We can say that this desire is an anthropological universal that arises from a sense of "finiteness" in the human condition. Within the four communities that I photographed, I tried to capture the gestures and facial expressions that open the door to the complexity of their inner experiences. In all the experiences I witnessed, meditation around a divine thought was clearly evident and its manifestation oscillated continuously between a desire for intimacy and a state of intense bliss. Even though all four of the communities venerate their gods with the same dignity, their rituals are carried out quite differently; those of the Christian Orthodox, Sikh and Buddhist communities take place primarily in silence and composure, while those of the African Catholics strongly manifest the impetus of joy and desire for spiritual communion. As well, in Sikh practices, food is an integral component to their rituals. Their temple has two floors: meals are prepared and eaten on the first floor and the second floor is for coming together in prayer. Music plays a similar role in the Ghanese community; it sets the rhythm of prayer, reinforces the precepts and accompanies the words of hope.
BIO
Ivano Di Maria was born in Udine in 1967. He got his degree in Photography at DAMS (Academy of Dance, Art, Music and Performance) in Bologna with a thesis on "Social Photography". He has created several projects and published several monographs; Ivano works regularly on corporate advertising projects with various communication agencies. He also does photo-reporting on social themes both in Italy and abroad.
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