...and then it ends. Literally: a road sign says “here ends the public road”, and there, right there, at the end of “their” road, the lifeless corpses of almost 1.000 cars are resting: it's one of the two largest old car graveyard in Sweden. Chassis and rims, foils and coils and headlights and gaskets abandoned by a local car wrecker since the 40s, now make a gigantic monument to an era, the one of individual mobility, which has still to fade, differently from the millions of vehicles which fed it. And a monument to consumerism and to what's happening once we get rid of the consumed goods. And to the boundless power of Nature, which is step by step conquering the naked bodies of the cars, reclaiming the spaces that belong to her. It's been a quick visit, just a couple of hours of inspection in preparation for further in depth sessions and in different seasons, and nevertheless very rich in emotions and wonder, through several layers of reading, non only from a photographic standpoint; starting with that peculiar feeling in watching the “after” of such a daily tool, with which we use to have such an strict relationship.
A swamp. A small one, let's say 20x30 meters. Cloudberries getting ready for the coming winter, few meagre birches and a pine, and a wide angle lens. Two afternoons of pure visual joy, spent deep in the soaked moss as a child playing in a puddle, and with the same amusement.
This time the guest is Mario Gilardelli, who paid us a visit at Länsmansgården with his nice family, and now shares in the Chronicles an elegant view of Njupeskär waterfall. It should have been just a couple of days of nature guiding, but because of the amount of things to see and the pleasantness of the participants it ended in a full week... full of wildlife, photos and high spirits. I'm talking of the visit paid me by the Marche section of AFNI (Italian Nature Photographers Association) here in Särna at the beginning of June. You can see some memories from the Family Album. Here it is now a selection of pictures they kindly shared with me to be in the Chronicles. Let's start with some landscapes... ...and let's finish with some animals.
Sten Hallin (1953-2014) Tthe Lord of the Rings has flown away. A kind, good man if I had never known own. He'll be missed.
The following one is the memory I like to share about him, taken from the 2007 Chronicles. "Sten, whom we already met talking about Stenvallen, is an ornithologist, and he is running a ringing project about Tengmalm's Owl (Aegolius funereus). Think at what it means for a birds lover having the opportunity of such a close contact which even includes the physical touch, doing moreover something useful to the research about them. After being measured and ringed, owls are released. Sten lets go the claws, and... the bird stays still on his hand, not flying away. The picture catches exactly that moment: in his face look there is all the amazement for what's happening, mixed up with a almost childish joy, wonderful to watch in a grown man. The owl stays on his span for some more time, calmly looking around. Suddenly it flies: goes up straight on the vertical, slowly, flapping wings without a sound, as a large moth whose light shape fades away dissolving in the darkness of the boreal night." |
All site contents are: © Vitantonio Dell'Orto, all rights reserved worldwide. The Chronicles of Särna, and other stories from the North.
I live in Sweden, in Särna (Dalarna). The Chronicles are a photo diary about the nature (but not just) here around and from all the Scandinavian areas where my photo job takes me.
My book: "My Sweden - Tales from an Italian photographer in the North" is available in the bookstores and by the publisher.
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