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20 minutes and 12 km away from Milan, towards the Parco Sud di Milano, there is a place where the reality still maintains a rural essence.
Peasants, milkers and shepherds keep this area alive, preserving and jealously guarding old traditions.
The passing of time is mostly read with the help of sunlight; mobile phones are only used when strictly necessary. General administration such as accounting, milk quotas and the traceability of the livestock is still noted down by hands.
Milan is a stone’s throw away but to some it is as far as New York.
Making ends meet is not easy, the stringent European’s regulations force farmers and breeders to continuous economic sacrifices to make areas and structures compliant.
During my journey in this rural community, I had the opportunity to meet people who took me in a world that I had not known until then.
I followed them, listened and photographed them with my camera; they taught me how to adapt to their rhythm, slow and precise, unknown to my everyday life, but well ingrained within myself.
I went from one farm to another, day by day, I walked through the fields, finding myself in places untouched by the passing of the time; these are landscapes and views from American movies.
20 Minutes to Milan is the continuation of a photographic and anthropological project of a territory which is still evolving, a project driven by the desire to know origins and people.
A testimony of the deep and ongoing connection between one of the last farming reality of the outskirts of Milan and its past.
