If You Put Up a Wall, Think About What Remains Outside
photography, photojournalism, story through photos
The influence of large criminal organizations can create a stronghold that is almost impossible to break among the citizens residing in that area. This is the case for the people of Scampia, a neighborhood residing in Naples. Here, criminal organizations like the Camorra clan rose to power in the late 1900s, creating a fortress for the citizens and trapping them in their walls of control.
When I first arrived in Scampia, I grappled with the question of how to convey the essence of this place. Scampia’s history is a powerful story of trapped individuals overcoming a powerful force and their journey toward recovery. Something I noticed while exploring Scampia was the feeling of enclosure that surrounded it. The architecture and the ambiance created a sense of imprisonment and loss of control. I took many frame-within-a-frame photos to try and show the idea of peering into the world of Scampia. My opening photograph is my favorite; the broken bullet-hole-filled window is the first frame and you are peering through the broken remnants of the past looking at what is present. We are looking at the past and present simultaneously through this photo.
I wanted to follow the first photo with the feelings of being trapped that plagued Scampia during the time of Camorra's control. We visited a school in the region that turned into a mafia weaponry-holding location during that time. It has now been turned around and is full of reminders of Camorra. The transformation of a location once dedicated to educating young children into a facility co-opted by the Camorra clan is deeply unsettling. Walking around the area of the school, I came across many eerie fences and barbed-wire-inclosed spaces. Some of these fences had remnants of life. One of the scenes I captured showed a turned-over baby crib through a fence. The crib’s lonesomeness through the fence reminded me of the loss of childhood and innocence, which was portrayed many times throughout the visit to Scampia. Moving away from these confinements, photo 6 marks the departure from the notion of bars and frames keeping you from the view. It allows us to actually go inside the homes of those who endured the mafia's rule: the infamous Sails. Witnessing and learning about history from the outside is extremely different from stepping foot into the very environment where it unfolded.
Emerging from the external perspective and into the imprisonment that was Scampia, you become aware of the aftermath of what happened. Children who lived through these dark times had to endure the loss of their schools, education, and innocence. Deprived of the chance to grow up with a stable education and a nurturing upbringing, some Scampia residents were forced to engage in illicit activities as a means of survival. This loss of innocence was particularly prominent in the school we visited. The streets were littered with remnants of childhood: discarded toys, kids' snacks, and abandoned school items. These pieces seemed to linger, scattered in every direction.
However, the remarkable part of this story is the resilience of the community. After the Camorra's power was largely dismantled, dedicated volunteers in the community came together to transform the school's surroundings. They created beautiful murals on the walls, incorporating the debris left behind by the mafia. This act of artistic defiance and transformation symbolizes the beauty that can emerge from broken remains.
A powerful message was spray-painted on the walls of the Scampia Sails: 'If you put up a wall, think about what remains outside.' This message, to me, was interpreted as building walls doesn't solve the problem; it merely contains it. The public housing project of the Sails, created by the government, failed to execute its mission correctly, allowing the Camorra to infiltrate and thrive. The story of Scampia is not just one of enclosure and confinement; it's a story of hope, resilience, and the human spirit's ability to rise above the darkest of times.
