Salt has undoubtedly been one of the most important goods all along human history: a fundamental component of life, it started being extracted from sea water around 6.000 BC to be used both as a nutrient and as a preserver; populations fought and killed each other for the power it gave to those who could keep its control; revolutions made through it (see for instance Ghandi's Salt March); roads & cities have been named after it; many words of common use today come from the Latin word for salt, such as salad, salary and so on. Salt has been either mined, or extracted from sea water during the course of history using various different systems, getting slightly more refined as mankind & technology progressed, but still based on the same principles. One of the oldest way of obtaining salt from the sea (especially effective in a hot area such as Sicily) consists still today in creating vast, shallow ponds separated by levees, filling them with sea water, and then letting the sun do what it does best in Sicily: being hot as hell. Once the sun made the water evaporate, it is a pretty easy job to pick up the salt. One area where salt fields are still in operation today is near Trapani, in Sicily; and there I had a chance to spend some time shooting around in one of the old saltworks.
 |
| Harvested salt, Italy 2012 |
In the old days, water was moved from the sea to the elevated sea fields via windmills, now long replaced by mechanical pumps. The old mills, rusty and abandoned, are still standing today, quiet witnesses of their own past. Here is an old, re-converted mill at dawn:
 |
| Windmill and sea salt pond, Italy 2012 |
And here's another one, this one abandoned to itself, bathed in the warm light of morning:
 |
| Old windmill and sea salt ponds, Italy 2012 |
 |
| Salt pond and old mill, Italy 2012 |
Once the salt has been collected, it is then stored in mounds, covered by plastic sheets weighted down by roof tiles, creating beautiful reflections at dawn:
 |
| Old Sea Salt ponds, Italy 2012 |
 |
| Saltern reflections, Italy 2012 |
As well as at sunset:
 |
| Sea Salt hills, Italy 2012 |
Operations in the salt fields are nowadays mechanized, but probably not as much as one would expect:
 |
| Old machinery, Italy 2012 |
In the old days, as I mentioned before, salt was a very important commodity: one that people killed for, tried to steal, and therefore one that needed protection. Hence, the need for watch towers all around the salt fields: some of these are still standing, though their function is - fortunately - not needed anymore in today's Sicily.
 |
| Sea salt fields and levees, Italy 2012 |
Last, I leave you with a final image: closing the circle started with the first photo of this long post, once more you can see the final product of all the work done here; with one of the old mills in the background, not needed nor useful anymore, but still standing proud for all the years of service rendered.
 |
| Sea salt and old mill, Italy 2012 |
Plug: if you like beautiful Fine Art Prints, printed masterfully in-house on Hahnemuhle Fine Art paper, want the security of my unique 6-POINTS WARRANTY and of my CERTIFICATE OF AUTHENTICITY, look no further: amazing artwork featuring Fine Art prints of my Sicily images are available for sale HERE!
Now for the technical stuff (click to go to the related product page): all images shown here have been shot with a Nikon D3X equipped with the Nikon 24mm f/1.4 AF-S and the Nikon 50mm f/1.4 AF-S. For support I used a Gitzo tripod equipped with an Arca Swiss Cube head; last, but certainly not least, I also used Singh-Ray filters, including a polarizer & various ND filters. Photos have been developed in Nikon Capture NX 2 and finished in Adobe Photoshop CS6.SUPPORT THE BLOG! USE THE BOXES BELOW TO START YOUR AMAZON SHOPPING!
0 comments:
Post a Comment