During the days of the Saint Agatha celebrations, Catania turns into a space where faith, identity, and popular participation weave together until they become a single body in motion. A one-of-a-kind experience that moves and unites.

It’s a suspended time, where the sacred coexists with the everyday and every gesture—even the simplest—seems charged with memory. In this context comes the workshop led by Giuseppe Scianna, a photographer we know very well, who chose to work immersed in the complexity of the Agatha celebration. No constructed set, no distance: the impulse to shoot is born inside the crowd, among the people.

ph. Nunzio Alberto

The approach proposed during the workshop was clear from the start: observe without intruding, tell the story without oversimplifying. The Feast of Saint Agatha isn’t a postcard folkloric event, but a layered collective rite made of genuine faith, belonging, and physical strain. Photographing it means taking on a narrative responsibility—choosing what to include and what to leave out—finding a balance between intensity and respect.

Among the participants, three viewpoints stand out: those of Davide Gerbino, Nunzio Alberto, and Simone Monsellato. Their images don’t simply document the procession; they search for details, tensions, and fragments of humanity that convey the feast’s more intimate dimension.

ph. Simone Monsellato

The workshop thus becomes a space for exchange, but above all an exercise in awareness. Photographing the Feast of Saint Agatha means accepting the unpredictability of such a chaotic event, giving up control over the image, and learning to read what’s happening even before raising the camera. It’s training for the eye, even before technique.

Between the sacred and the everyday, on this occasion photography becomes a tool for memory and storytelling. It doesn’t alter the meaning of the celebration, but moves through it, trying to return the soul of a city that lives tradition as a living, physical, shared experience. In this sense, Giuseppe Scianna’s workshop is not only a photography lab, but an invitation to slow down and really look: because certain images aren’t taken—they’re earned.

in cover, a shot by Simone Monsellato