In Letojanni, Sicily, October, 2023. ©photo by Titus Heagins 2023.
I think often about place and finding my spot in the world has been a lifelong quest. Where do I belong? Where am I most at ease? Where can I be my best self? Madison County has been that place for most of the last fifty years and I think I landed well.
As with life, photography and writing are equally dependent on finding your spot. Where to stand when making a photograph or to best hear a story is the first, and most elemental, decision I make when photographing or simply listening.
Throughout my life and career, I’ve had the opportunity to visit many places, some of which I’ve thought could become my spot. I’ve studied the landscape, the climate, the size, the people of these places—northern New Mexico, Vermont, Alaska, the Olympic Peninsula—and thought, I could live here. I could photograph here. I could be of this place. But I’ve never left my place in the mountains.
I returned home from a recent trip to Sicily with that familiar urge to make it my own. I had reasons: family history, living relatives I know, a love of the culture, land, and people. The raw emotion of being with family in the place where we began, where our DNA is buried. But perhaps most importantly was being of an age and inclination to appreciate and embrace the slow of the Mediterranean day.
The name Letojanni is often attributed to the Moors who conquered Sicily, as well as, much of 'Europe in the 9th century A.D. They had a favorite horse named Janni and named the town after him. But in Sicilian Letojanni is generally understood to mean happy years and I sense I could be happy there, that it could be my spot.
Janni, Letojanni, Sicily 2023
Please donate to my upcoming book Little Worlds
https://www.robamberg.com/blog/2023/8/12/little-worlds-the-book