In collaboration with the Library of Congress in Washington, Fondazione OELLE Mediterraneo Antico presents from July 9th, in its Phil Stern Pavilion at Le Ciminiere in Catania, the photographic exhibition "1943. Faces and places of liberated Sicily". Photographs by Nick Parrino, curated by Ezio Costanzo. The exhibition, in partnership with the Metropolitan City of Catania-Museo Storico Sbarco in Sicilia 1943, includes 80 images by Nick Parrino, an Italian-American photographer who followed the US army during the Second World War, who in September 1943 immortalized some moments of the daily life of the people of Sicily after the armistice of September 3rdcarlo and add your text.

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The exhibition

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In the photos of Parrino, enlisted in the OWI, the Office of War Information, the government agency for information and propaganda campaigns, there is the liberated Sicily of the days following Operation Husky and the smiling faces of the population that is starting to live again by rebuilding its existence. In the shots emerges the intent of the OWI photographer to portray, sometimes in an idyllic way, the recovery of social and economic life both in the big cities, such as Palermo, Catania, Agrigento, Messina, Syracuse, and in the small provincial towns and in the countryside. People are careful to put the pieces of their existence back together and, in this rural and popular Sicily, everyone lends a hand to everyone, supported by the US soldiers themselves. And here are the farmers on Etna, the fishermen, the workers who work the stone to rebuild the roads, the moments of relaxation and cultural entertainment organized by Amgot, the master craftsmen, the places of history and art that have always enchanted the world. Nick Parrino's images do not show battles, but the serene state of mind of many Sicilians who, once again in the course of their centuries-old history, have been able to overcome with a spirit of sacrifice the defeat of a war, experienced as always as a fatal calamity. "These are images in which the instant freezes history - says Ezio Costanzo, curator of the exhibition - giving us back the great value of documentary photography, which becomes testimony to the social and economic culture of a place and its people".

 

Who was Nick Parrino

 

Little is known about the photographer Nick Parrino. His surname reveals his Italian origins, but his date and place of birth are still unknown. He seems to have lived in Cleveland, Ohio, where he died in 1979. Before the war he worked as a photographer for the Cleveland Plain newspaper. For the OWI Parrino photographed on various war fronts, including North Africa, the Middle East and Italy. He worked as a photojournalist for Wide World Photos and, after the war, was a photo editor for Newsweek magazine. He was also the director of the photography library of the Cities Service Co. (later CITGO) where he worked until 1967.