Qui Riposa: Photographs of Tuscany

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In the summers of 2010 and 2011 I photographed abandoned farm buildings in Tuscany. These images are intended for a future book project. The title, Qui Riposa, is taken from a common epitaph found on Italian tombs, meaning “Here Lies” or “At Rest”. The buildings were abandoned in the last few decades as agriculture industrialized in Italy. A way of life on the land that had existed for centuries in Tuscany changed dramatically after World War II. Many of the photographs were taken at night, when the sense of abandonment in the rural areas is particularly profound. This body of work and these subjects closely parallel some of my Louisiana book projects, which documented the agrarian landscape and the historical architecture of rural Louisiana, much of it abandoned and in compromised condition.

—Richard Sexton