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This is my photography blog: information and education focusing on the history, geography, and lifestyle of the Alps. A careful look at what has been, what is, and what will be.
Why zip? Because the Alps are a hinge that unites the peoples of Europe, not a barrier that separates. It has always been so, from the Romans and Barbarians, to the Middle Ages and the modern era...and today it is a magnificent laboratory of contradictions and hyperbole, where beauty and modernity blend together, enclosed within short distances and slight elevation changes.
I quote Werner Batzing in his work “The Alps” Edizioni Bollati Boringhieri anno 2005: “Between 1965 and 1985, the European industrial states transformed into service societies, which implied radical social and cultural transformations, of great importance for the perception of the Alps. Leisure time completely frees itself from the world of work (i.e. the distinction between working days and Sundays disappears) and brings with it a great harvest of experiences. The postmodern leisure society therefore no longer sees the Alps simply as a space for leisure time but treats them as a special sporting instrument capable of arousing bodily experiences. Since all sporting activities are oriented in a highly specialized way towards very specific experiences, they require certain environmental conditions and infrastructures. For this reason today there is no longer an ideal arena for leisure time, but each individual activity has its own perception of the different value of the Alps as an ideal sporting instrument: the collective image of the Alps is thus shattered into countless fragments that coexist side by side. The images of the Alps mentioned here, which so strongly characterize their perception in Europe, are therefore images foreign to the Alpine world, which to some extent distort its reality. The images of the Alps produced by the native population are, on the other hand, less spectacular, they lack uniqueness, grandeur and exceptionality. The Alps are characterized and dominated mentally, in the head, by images elaborated by foreigners.”