Photographer Francesco Lupò is the Edge of Humanity Magazine contributor of this photo essay. From the project ‘South East: Tea Night’. To see Francesco’s body of work, click on any photograph.

” There is no time common to different places, but there is also no single time in a single place.”

The Order of Time, Carlo Rovelli

At a time when the modern world is racing ever faster towards the future, trains allow us to be transported through time, as well as space, bearing witness to the passage of lives and stories that have characterized our land and our culture.

The goal is to reveal the silent and decadent soul of the “Ferrovie del Sud Est” in the Salento area.

The rusty iron of the rails is the tangible testimony of a bygone era, when the “Ferrovie del Sud Est” del Salento was the main means of transport and communication in the region.

Immersed in the mystery of the night, these shots capture the beauty of the ruined trains, which rest silently, shrouded in darkness, imposing and full of charm. Between shadows and filtered lights, one is immersed in a feeling of melancholy and loss, forgetfulness and abandonment. These perceptions have pushed me to want to give them dignity, bearing witness to the resistance of time and the persistence of memory, inviting the observer to reflect on the relationship between man and the environment.

Abandoned trains blend into the surrounding landscape, mixing their rusty metal with the red earth and lush vegetation. And it is in this dialogue between wild nature and the rich cultural history of the Salento context that these images acquire a deeper meaning, leading us to reflect on sustainability and the balance between development and conservation.

The past intertwines with the present, the present intertwines with the future, like train tracks.

Trains, once symbols of progress and connection and now forgotten and abandoned by modernity, with their aura of grandeur still have a space for rebirth, perhaps through recovery and restoration.

These shots, therefore, are open doors to past, present and future worlds, which invite us to explore our connection with time, memory and landscape. They are invitations to reflection and contemplation, which help us make sense of our place in the world and our relationship with the past that has shaped us.

To complete the project, to amplify the emotional charge and offer a poetic look at the fragility of human existence and the persistence of nature in reclaiming what it is, I chose to shoot at night. And so, the decadent beauty merges with the quiet of the night, which offers a fascinating and intimate vision of the forgotten history of the tracks of the South East of Italy.

N.B.: “Ferrovie del Sud Est” is a regional train company in Puglia, Italy.

The title of the project “Sud Est: te notte” is the union of a part of the name of the train company (Ferrovie del Sud Est) and the dialect term for “the night” (te notte).

I’m working on the second part of the project, with photos taken during the day.

Francesco Lupò

Eastern Sicily, August nineteen-eighty-three.

I was born between the Ionian Sea and Mount Etna, surrounded by saltiness and volcanic ashes, which fall down like rain, even more often than rain.

I am tirelessly trying to focus on the essence of street photography, made of chaos and movement, on landscape photography, made of harmony and meditation, and on architectural photography.

My background in architectural studies leads me to discover abandoned, often unexplored, places, in the attempt to give them that sense of dignity and redemption they probably would never receive.

“Beauty will save the world.”  (Fëdor Dostoevskij, 1869)

All images and text © Francesco Lupò