The black and white images by photographers Giacomo Barone and Gianluca Marrone take us to the heart of Palermo, where the Festino of Santa Rosalia reveals itself in all its popular, spiritual, and theatrical force. The project Rosalia. Beyond Faith, born in 2022, is much more than a photo book: it is a journey through the celebrations dedicated to the “Santuzza,” but also an investigation into the deep meaning of a devotion that has united an entire city for centuries.

Divided into five sections, the work of Giacomo Barone and Gianluca Marrone moves along a double track, both temporal and spatial. On one hand, it recounts the last three years of celebrations, documenting how the ritual has changed over time, especially after the pandemic restrictions. On the other, it follows the events throughout the neighborhoods, constructing an itinerary that crosses the entire urban fabric of Palermo.

The black and white chosen by Barone and Marrone is not a stylistic choice, but a narrative one: it digs into faces, hands, gestures, and statues carried in procession, bringing out a collective feeling that goes beyond religious faith. The photos speak of bodies and souls, of traditions passed down, of children and the elderly, of those who still find in Rosalia a deep symbol of identity.

In this work, every shot is a piece of a larger story — that of a city that, through ritual, tries to recognize and narrate itself. And that of two authors who, with documentary sensitivity and rare aesthetic care, manage to deliver to the viewer an immersive experience that makes them feel part of a living tradition.

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