A Matter of FaithDocumentary Street Photography — Andrea Scirè

Project Info

The word faith — from the Greek πίστις, pístis — speaks of trust. Of someone who confides, who surrenders, whose conviction is unshakeable. In its deeper reading, the same word carries the meaning of faithfulness: a bond held firm through time and devotion.

A Matter of Faith is a street photography reinterpretation of that surrender — of the particular way people give themselves over to the Divine, and to the celebrations held in its honour in Militello in Val di Catania, Sicily.

Here, holding sacred scriptures becomes an act as intimate as marking your own skin with the effigy of a Saint. A father lifts his naked child beneath the simulacrum. Another man carries its weight with his whole body. Someone watches in silence, dressed in their finest clothes. Someone else displays their faith openly — actively, visibly — or builds a temporary shrine from whatever the moment offers.

In Sicily, the pathos of religious celebration is contagious. Everything else is simply a matter of faith.