02-09-2016

"There's no place like home"

In his photographic story called "There's no place like home" , architect and photojournalist Claudio Menna narrates the lives of an independent community - squatters living in precarious conditions in abandoned spaces located in the centre of Naples, in the Montesanto district.



In his photographic story called "There's no place like home" , architect and photojournalist Claudio Menna narrates the lives of an independent community - squatters living in precarious conditions in abandoned spaces located in the centre of Naples, in the Montesanto district.  

The Montesanto district in Naples is home to a range of urban realities, the busyness of the metro station stands alongside the dynamics of the University faculty of Architecture, the hospital and the local marketplace. In amongst all this ordinary routine, a community of people have found their space, squatting in an old train depot and turning it into their home.  
 "There's no place like home" started in 2014, when the young photojournalist Claudio Menna decided to approach this group of squatters of different nationalities.
After winning their trust, he started taking photos of them going about their daily lives, generating portraits of different scales about a rather unsettling precariousness. At the human level we see the faces of women and men who have lost everything - their jobs, their homes and even their families - and who are united here, in Naples, in this new world, this community of squatters. Some of Menna's other shots focus on the living spaces, which these people built from nothing, using basic resources.  Again we see the instability, grasp the impact of the fragile solutions adopted, constructions formed of poles and cables, fabric and bedsheets, fragile structures dividing personal spaces. With these photos, Claudio Menna brings back to the observer spontaneous architecture, architecture that can change, because the only way it can continue to exist is by adapting itself, as a reflection of the people who live in it.
In addition to all these precarious conditions, the project also has the purpose of showcasing the theme of coexisting cultures in the urban space. Because here in Montesanto, the local community does not view the squatters as a symptom of lowered standards or a group to marginalise in a ghetto. To the contrary, the locals help them by donating clothes and periodically giving them food, empathising and collaborating with a community that is perfectly integrated into the district's dynamics.  
"There's no place like home" by Claudio Menna can be interpreted through two filters - architecture, as an accurate reportage on a precarious and borderline modus vivendi, and human, in the faces of people immortalised in these intimate, contemplative shots. In both cases, when you study these photos you end up feeling swallowed up for a moment in that complicated life, until you can perhaps feel the depth of emotions that the photographer communicates here, with great intensity and respect. 
  
Barbara Esposito 

Sito: http://claudiomenna.wix.com/photo

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