Paputi - 2019
One of the most popular and ancient traditions of the town of Sarno, is the one that provides the set of more processions that run through the most important streets of the town. The “faithful” during the journey sing songs, commonly set aside to the complaints of the dying Christ, before sacred images, or “sepulchres”. The hooded, or “paputi”, represent the figure of the worldly man who lives his habits and reaches salvation through this path of purification. Almost all the “paputi” wear white capes and are distinguished, according to the brotherhood of belonging, by the color of the cords they wear. There are only two exceptions: the paputis of the brotherhood of the church of San Matteo wear the hood and the red robe, colors that indicate suffering, pain and refers to the strong color of the blood; the church of San Francesco, whose faithful wear the monastic habit and whose faces are made visible.
The photographs tell part of these paths and take up moments peculiar to this rite. Moreover, I tried to introduce modernizing elements that derive from one of the ways in which contemporary Street photography is addressed: the search for shadows, strong colors, high contrast, eye-contact, alternative compositions, etc. I decided to follow a fairly hard and compositive line that emphasizes, through and in particular the contrast and high saturation, the narrative and traditional component of the custom.
I hope that the photographs will succeed, in some way, in highlighting the story of a ritual that, once the religious component has been overcome, represents a fundamental part of the evolutionary framework of the town of Sarno.