Nostalgia for the future

(Capri/Ischia/Procida)

A travel photo has a nostalgic and documentary component. The nostalgic one is more evident for the person who took it, regardless of its artistic and photographic value: those who have been to a place and taken a photo also remember through it a state of mind and a specific day.

In questo momento, a causa del COVID-19, sta avvenendo uno spostamento percettivo senza precedenti. Globalmente le foto di viaggio generano un effetto nostalgico in chiunque le guardi, a prescindere dal fatto di conoscere o meno i luoghi ritratti. 

Nostalgia has become a global phenomenon from intimate and personal: today, in 2020 (and I'm writing this here for future reference), we don't know exactly when we'll be able to start travelling again for the sheer pleasure of it. We don't know when we will be able to resume a plane, we don't know when we will eat next time in a restaurant. 

These are all experiences that we have already had and that, today, are not included among the possibilities that contemporary life has in store for us. Unless we have to do it for work, travel for pleasure and with the freedom that until months ago was taken for granted is no longer taken for granted. 

Today, suddenly, nostalgia has become a global issue and a feeling disconnected from direct knowledge of a place. Today we are nostalgic for places we have never seen before, not because we do not know when we will return there but because we do not know when we will ever be able to go there.