Assignment 5: Applying the techniques of illustration and narrative.

'Alessandra and Fedele'

Alessandra and Fedele emigrated from the south of Italy to England more than fifty years ago. He was born and raised in Faeto, Puglia, while she came from Avellino. They met in Tunbridge Wells, where they both had found work. They eventually moved to a small shoe-making town in the East Midlands, where they lived for more than forty five years. Fedele was trained as a shoemaker and worked - and still does - in this trade in factories and shops in their adopted town.

The experience of Alessandra and Fedele was shared by so many of their compatriots in the years after the second world war. Italians in their thousands moved to Europe and America in search of a better future. In Bedford, a few miles from where they now live there are about 10,000 Italians, comprising several generations.

Alessandra is one of life's great communicators. Whether face-to-face or on the phone, she is in touch with so many people. She is not one to restrict her social circle to members of her own ethnic community. No - she makes friends right across the diverse cultural population of the town. Here she is calling a friend over to see her photo albums of images from the past.

By kind permission of Fedele and Alessandra  Girardi

This is her father-in-law, giving a ride to a small boy on his donkey or mule. In pre-scooter days this was the preferred mode of transporting people and merchandise around in rural areas.

By kind permission of Fedele and Alessandra  Girardi

This photograph, from the early 1950s, shows Fedele - second from left on the top row -  and his family. There are three generations to be seen here. But here can be seen, on the faces of those present, reflections of nostalgia, anticipation, uncertainty and hope. Who knows how each individual life has turned out? Alessandra's finger points out the basic facts: dead, still living...

By kind permission of Fedele and Alessandra  Girardi

This image shows the young couple when they would have been 'stepping out'. This may have been a Sunday outing somewhere, perhaps because they worked six days a week. They may have even referred to themselves as the 'promessi sposi' or the 'betrothed'. An Italian engagement of those times would have followed very traditional lines.

By kind permission of Fedele and Alessandra  Girardi

What links these two pictures is the continuation of that original 'something' that drew Alessandra and Fedele together all those fifty-odd years ago. In the photo above, they are young, looking their best and clearly very much in love with each other. In the image below, they are older, looking more relaxed - but still very much in love.

They have been in the house they live in now for over forty five years. Here they raised their family of three children, who all live elsewhere. While the house is full of memories, but just as much it is full of good company, shared human warmth and good company. It is probably the best-kept house in the entire street. It has a long garden, full mostly of vegetables. But it has a patio for everything 'al fresco' that Italians enjoy. here also is Fedele's own shoe-making workshop, as well as space for processing produce from the garden. Plus, there is a small lean-to for Alessandra and Fedele to have welcome 'pisolinos' - Italian for siesta.

Looking up the street, there is an intriguing structure looking down on the row of neat terraced houses. It is the corner-piece of a shoe factory, one of many in this town. They crop up everywhere. Below is the serious and business-like side view of this once-busy hub of local manufacture that would have commanded a world-wide market in its time. But in time the manual labour was found to be cheaper elsewhere in the world and so such dominance was diminished and all but extinguished.

This little character sits out in the back garden of the house. He is a shoe maker and an amusing acknowledgement of the craft that Fedele has practised over the years. This figure sits with an upturned shoe, which he is tapping into shape. Although there are many instruments contained in his work shop and toolbox, for some reason it is the special hammer that seems to symbolises his trade more than anything else. 

And here is that toolbox. It holds, as well as the infamous hammer, all manner of brushes, polishes, resins and instruments of an almost secret nature.

Fedele demonstrated the art of making a shoe, from start to finish. He went through the whole process. There were more stages and steps than could have been imagined.

His concentration was absolute. He was like a virtuoso musician, lost in the creation of some beautiful concerto. Out of his total absorption emerged the shoe he had made, seemingly from just a few bits of leather. But it was simply a thing of beauty...

There is another activity that Alessandra and Fedele pursue on an almost daily basis: tending their allotment. They either go together in their car or Fedele cycles up there on his bike.

These regular visits mean so much than just looking after a plot of land. As Fedele often says: 'It's like work - it keeps you going. It gives you something to get out of bed for in the morning!' Here is a man who is in his early eighties and who has never really retired in the 'sitting at home all day watching trash on TV' kind of way. He is fit, healthy and active. He tills the soil, much as his forebears in Puglia would have done.

He follows the rhythm of the seasons. He knows when to dig, to sow and when to harvest. His is the joy of hard work, of honest labour well done. As he cleans his tools and heads for home, he feels he has earned his 'wages' for another day.

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The allotment also offers them other things. Aside from a large crop of fruit and vegetables, there is the positive contact with nature. There is also being part of a community of other gardeners, some of whom have known each other for many years.

The results of all this hard work: figs, potatoes, tomatoes and beans. To say nothing of lettuce, leeks and onions. The list of produce possibly goes on for quite a bit more. The traditions of self-reliance, providing for your own needs and not being always obligated to others are truly honoured by all this activity. When Fedele describes what he does here, throughout the year round, he speaks in the language of farmers worldwide. He lists of the elements of this most ancient of livelihoods: soil, weather, harvests, implements, care, preparation and dedication.

This is a symbol of all of what is done on the allotment: the coming together of friends to help in a common task. In this case it is the late summer custom of preparing and bottle tomatoes for theuces to be used in the year ahead. Out of this shared effort will come so many Italian dishes that require any kind of 'salsa di pomodori'.

And these are the friends who come to the house of Alessandra and Fedele to share and celebrate all that is truly unique to this couple, to this culture.

The sum of the span of their lives is like the rings and fractures found in this section of fencing that surrounds their beloved allotment.

Their other, deeper, harvest is their three children. Their upbringing and early personal formation is the fruit of the labour of love that follows the example of the fashioner of shoes and the tiller of the earth.

The children's portraits have pride of place in their living room, which in so many Italian households has an almost sanctuary-like status. Here honoured guests are received, friendships nurtured and achievements celebrated. Where better than to share the joy that is one's children?

This assignment is dedicated to the memory of Alexandra Boulat, photojournalist: born Paris 2 May 1962; died Paris 5 October 2007. 

It was her article in the February 2000 edition of 'National Geographic' that had inspired me for this assignment. I had found the magazine by chance, being interested initially by a feature on ancient Greece. I was hugely impressed by the layout of the photographs in this article, which was entitled 'Eyewitness Kosovo', as well as the subject matter. 

On a whim I looked up the author/photographer's name on the internet. It was a moving experience to discover that she was a renowned photojournalist and that, sadly, she had passed away.