Era Mare

Vo’ is a small town in Veneto, Northern Italy, in which the first European victim of COVID-19 was registered.

By testing all its inhabitants early on, it has managed to stop the contagion and has now become a living laboratory to study the coronavirus.

Back in February 2020, Vo’ was the first area in Italy to be declared a red zone, together with Lodi and Codogno. For two weeks after the discovery of the first case of COVID-19, nobody was allowed in and out of the town.

Andrea Crisanti, full professor of Microbiology at the University of Padua, was quick to react. He offered to test all 3,1000 citizens of the town, and 95% of the population agreed to participate in the experiment. Such a thorough investigation of an entire population was unprecedented.

Around 100 were found to be positive and asked to isolate at home. A few weeks later, a second round of testing showed that those people had overcome the disease and the virus had virtually disappeared from the town. Dozens of lives had been saved and, while the rest of the country was struggling to contain the virus, Vo’ had virtually become the healthiest place in Italy.

In early May, a third round of testing was performed by Crisanti, with the aid of around sixty volunteers per day, coming from the town and surrounding area. This time, in addition to saliva and nasal swabs, the inhabitants underwent a blood test that will reveal if their immune system has developed antibodies against the virus. This is data that any epidemiologist in the world would want to get their hands on.

In November Andrea Crisanti asked to the 160 citizens who had an antibody response to Covid-19 to have a new blood test to check their antibodies strength, six months later. This information is important to understand how long immunization lasts and also regarding the vaccine development.

In the future, Crisanti’s work could help save thousands of lives at a global level. This would not have been possible without the goodwill of the citizens, who also agreed to provide personal data and other sensitive information for the sake of the research. The story of Vo’ is one of a community coming together to save itself and help humanity make one step forward.

This photographic project covers the 12 months of the little town that has become an international model.

Between the 26th and the 30th of October 2018, an extreme weather event stormed Italy, hitting with unprecedented violence the Trentino-Alto Adige, Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia regions. On the night of October 29th, in particular, the incessant heavy rain caused the mountain creeks to flood and wind blowing from the South-east at up to 200 km/h tore down approximately 14 million trees in some valleys of the Dolomites and the Prealps. The following day, people living here contemplated for a few moments the wasted landscape, then they rolled up their sleeves to fix the most urgent issues: damaged buildings, unroofed houses, streets and squares filled with mud, upset riverbeds, destroyed aqueducts, phone and electricity lines fallen to the ground.

More than two years later the consequences of Storm Vaia are still tangible. Collecting the fallen trees is a complex operation that requires experience and resources, so many of them are still on the ground. Their wood is feeding ground for the Ips typographus, a parasite beetle that could easily spill from the trees on the ground to those that are still standing, potentially destroying six times as much forest as the storm did. Furthemore, the fallen trees no longer represent a protection against landslides and avalanches, and upset riverbeds are no longer able to contain and channel the water. As if this wasn’t enough, the economy of these mountain communities is struggling: the price of wood has plummeted and many tourist activities have been temporarily closed.

Storms have always been part of the history of forests, but climate change is amplifying their power and frequency. On one hand, the rise of two degrees in the temperature of the Mediterranean sea in October has surely contributed to Vaia’s intensity. On the other hand, the rise of the European spruce’s line is modifying not only the landscape, but the entire ecosystem of these woods. So, as people living in these areas slowly go back to normality, every time the wind blows they ask themselves the same disquieting question: when is the next storm going to hit? And what will it leave behind?

Mixing archive photography and reportage, satellite and microscope imagery, first-hand accounts and scientific theories, this project aims to tell the story of Vaia. Conceived when the emergency was already over and developed over the course of more than a year, it analyzes what has happened with the time to ponder causes, responsibilities, consequences, opportunities and future outlooks, while raising awareness about climate change.

The work was born in collaboration with the TESAF and DAFNAE departments at the University of Padua.