Ambelia — The Humanity BehindDocumentary Street Photography — Andrea Scirè

Project Info

Ambelia is the most important horse fair in southern Italy — held each spring in Sicily, on the ancient estate of the same name in the territory of Catania. Thousands of people gather to watch riders and horses perform. But look a little closer, and another spectacle quietly unfolds.

You see passionate men and bored women. You see dust rising in the afternoon light, and catch the sharp, unmistakable smell of manure cutting through the air. Different people fill the stands as if drawn there by some invisible, recurring force — as if caught in a cycle that has been turning long before they arrived.

Time passes slowly between one show and the next. And in that waiting, in that suspended stillness, life reveals itself: in glances exchanged and ignored, in laughter and silence, in the particular way people occupy space when they think no one is watching.

At Ambelia, all you have to do is turn your back on the horses to find the real show.