I wanted to honor the olive tree, a tree that is much more than a plant. The olive tree has always been present in symbology and myths since prehistoric times. Furthermore today it’s a symbol of peace, strength, faith, triumph, victory and honor.
It has united people and it has crossed the history of humanity.
Nourishment and protection, the olive tree has always been an important part of our lives and our ancestors lives as an emblem of life and peace.
With these shots I wanted to focus on the olive trees from Puglia that are suffering from a mortal disease that is causing their decimation.
Thousands of millenary olive trees in Puglia are dying, my will was to document the trees that survived (until today) and show the disastrous effects of Xylella on the plants themselves, effects that have even pushed farmers to burn their beloved olive trees to try to block the spread of the bacterium.
I went to Puglia, I “talked” to these “great seniors” and I honored them by taking pictures.
Xylella, the disease that has affected the Apulian olive trees, appeared in the region in 2012 and has already scourged 40% of the regional territory. In five years it hit 770 thousand hectares of Apulian olive groves, with over 10 million infected plants and damage that they have now exceeded one billion euros.
In this tragedy I wanted to celebrate the beauty of the great seniors that are still healthy and I wanted to try to spread a positive and hopeful message.
At the same time I wanted to remind all of us that we must never stop fighting to protect and preserve nature and in this case, the thousand-year-old Apulian olive trees that are at risk of extinction.
We must keep our attention to this problem until it’s just a bad memory, in hope that many olive trees can still be saved.
We cannot risk to lose any more of these plants.