“Taranto is a territory that has always fascinated me, but it is also a city that I knew relatively little about [although the author lives in Bari, ed], because it is a city that lives on enormous prejudices. Taranto is an archipelago city made of pieces that do not communicate, each one with its own history and a very particular identity. This generates a disintegrated, shattered landscape, with the environmental disaster caused by the Ex Ilva steel plant in the background” says Antonio Ottomanelli.

With his photographic investigation, the author has portrayed two of the neighbourhoods currently at the centre of urban transformation in the city: Old Town and Tamburi. The territory of Taranto represents the conflict between work and the environment, production and health, which is one of the most urgent issues of our time. Ottomanelli tackles the issue by leaving the industries in the background and focusing on urban form and architecture.

“It is incredible how geography tells the story of this city. The island (the Old Town) is an element of connection between industry and the city, between the bourgeois and working-class districts.It is a connection of extremes. Tamburi is a district born with the explosion of big industry. It was the workers’ district and it was a beautiful neighbourhood. But with the failure of state industry, these areas became a place of abandonment,” explains the artist.

The photo-essay is part of "Come di Domenica", a documentary project conceived by Antonio Ottomanelli together with Triennale di Milano, which crosses Italy after the quarantine, investigating contradictions and development models through video, photography, a series of in-depth studies and interviews.