"Gomorrah Girl" © 2014 Valerio Spada
"Gomorrah Girl" © 2014 Valerio Spada
"Gomorrah Girl" © 2014 Valerio Spada
Valerio Spada Talks To Elizabeth Avedon: Gomorrah Girl
In Gomorrah Girl, Valerio Spada tells the story of the murder of Annalisa Durante, a young woman caught in the crossfire of a Mafia shootout, and the problems of growing up in a crime-ridden area. Bound together through an innovative, book-within-a-book design, are Spada’s photographs documenting adolescence in the land of Camorrah (the name for the Mafia in Naples) and pages detail the police investigation. Twin Palms Publishers will release a new edition this Fall.
Excerpts from my
Elizabeth Avedon: How did you conceive Gomorrah Girl?
Valerio Spada: I had not thought of it as a book.
After several years of shooting in Naples and after some fights and
threats in the streets that were by far too dangerous for any meaning
when you compare the value of your life to a picture, I decided it was
time to stop and think about giving a shape to what I was documenting
and the book form was there to save me. The book wasn’t ready, but I’d
started to be more aware of what I was missing and taking the pictures
needed to complete the book became easier.
EA: How did you arrive at such decisions to make this book?
VS: The Procura della Repubblica (higher grade than
police in Italy) denied me permission to shoot the evidence of
Annalisa’s murder; they told me I could take pictures of their pictures
if I wanted. They offered me their original notebook with forensic
pictures in it and gave me, as a gift, some 4x6” prints, which I’ve
found amazing. It was 2010 and the day was depressing, since I wanted to
photograph the original evidence from the murder. I was obsessed by
Annalisa’s delicate beauty and the bullet that killed her. It was a
contrast too strong to handle, but I decided to get to the heart of it.
After several months I went back to the photos in the notebook, and
began to picture them each as a page and thought, this will be a book
within a book. It was like rewriting that history today with girls that
are, to my eyes, like Annalisa, never forgetting the background of where
they lived their lives.
Read the entire
Gomorrah Girl by Valerio Spada
Unique hand assembled book with fold-out hard cover case
Twin Palms Publishers, Fall 2014
Unique hand assembled book with fold-out hard cover case
Twin Palms Publishers, Fall 2014
Gomorrah Girl by Valerio Spada
Twin Palms Publishers, Fall 2014
Twin Palms Publishers, Fall 2014
Gomorrah Girl by Valerio Spada
Twin Palms Publishers: Fall, 2014
9 x 13", casebound. 54-color plates, 78 pages
First Edition, $85
ISBN 978-1-936611-07-2
Twin Palms Publishers: Fall, 2014
9 x 13", casebound. 54-color plates, 78 pages
First Edition, $85
ISBN 978-1-936611-07-2
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