TITLE: My home tastes like almonds

Solastalgia (/ˌsɒləˈstældʒə/): the homesickness you feel when you are still at home.

The project My home tastes like almonds focuses on this neologism coined by the Australian philosopher Glenn Albrecht, which comes from a combination of the Latin word sōlācium (comfort) and the Greek suffix -algia (pain, affliction). The word solastalgia defines an existential discomfort caused by the environmental crisis. A concept related to eco-anxiety, solastalgia represents the loss of comfort and security we feel when a place we cherish, a place where we are supposed to feel at home, is transformed and disfigured by a force or phenomenon beyond our control. Solastalgia, unlike nostalgia, is not the result of being far from home, but the result of continuing to live in a place that has become unrecognisable to the eyes, memory and heart. All images in the project are digital photographs and feature non-professional models or are self-portraits.

AUTHOR: Alessandro Manzotti (France)

Born in 1994 in Novara (Italy), I studied biology and sociology in Padua and Paris, while pursuing photography. Aspiring to have a positive impact on the world and society, I decided to change my life by making environmental activism and photography my professions. Like environmental activism, photography is my tool for changing the world and defending our only common home, planet Earth. Even without directly and explicitly addressing ecological and environmental issues, my photographic projects have essential ecological value. Ecology and lyricism combine to address the themes of the environmental crisis from a poetic and subjective point of view. In a world threatened by climate change, I seek catharsis in my images. A single thread connects all of my project: the belonging to the place we consider our home, the origin and repository of our memories, a source of comfort and security, but also and above all the feeling of disarray we experience when this bond of belonging is broken. A place that is as much a physical space as it is an idea, a concept, the home of the self and the spirit. I have been practising photography for 15 years now and took a professional turn in my artistic practice three years ago with my project Casa mia ha un sapore di mandorle (My home tastes like almonds). I am working between France (Paris), Belgium (Brussels) and Italy (Milan). My images have been exhibited in several galleries in all of these three countries and published in a limited edition book.