Photographing the Cretto Burri
Journal · Sicily
Photographing the Cretto Burri:
Where Memory Becomes Landscape
There are places that immediately offer a photograph.
And then there are places that ask you to slow down before even raising the camera.
The Cretto Burri is one of them.
Located in the heart of western Sicily, near the town of Gibellina, this monumental land art installation is unlike any other photographic location on the island. It is not spectacular in the traditional sense. There are no dramatic sunsets over the sea, no bustling markets, no postcard scenes.
Instead, there is silence.
And sometimes silence is far more interesting.
Created by the Italian artist Alberto Burri after the devastating Belice earthquake of 1968, the Grande Cretto covers the ruins of the original town beneath a vast network of white concrete blocks. Walking through it feels less like visiting a monument and more like entering a landscape shaped by memory.
For photographers, it offers something increasingly rare: a place that encourages observation rather than consumption.
Seeing the Cretto Burri from Above
One of the reasons I keep returning to the Cretto Burri is how dramatically it changes depending on perspective.
At ground level, you move through narrow corridors of concrete, surrounded by walls that seem to absorb sound and slow down time.
From above, everything changes.
The site reveals its true nature.
The streets of the old town emerge as a vast geometric drawing etched into the Sicilian landscape. The concrete blocks become shapes, lines and rhythms. The weight of architecture disappears and what remains is pure visual structure.
This is why the Cretto Burri is such a fascinating location for landscape photography and aerial photography in Sicily.
Seen from above, it becomes an exercise in composition.
The eye follows the fractures.
The shadows create tension.
The geometry guides the frame.
Grande Cretto Burri, Gibellina · Aerial view · © Raffaele Ferrari
The Importance of Light on the Cretto Burri
Like many of my favourite locations, the Cretto Burri is less about the place itself and more about how light interacts with it.
Midday light can be harsh and unforgiving.
But during the first and last hours of the day, the landscape transforms.
Long shadows begin to stretch across the concrete surface, revealing textures and creating a visual rhythm between light and darkness.
These are the moments I look for.
Not because they are more dramatic, but because they add depth and ambiguity to the image.
Photography is often about showing less rather than more. The Cretto Burri teaches this lesson beautifully.
Photographing Absence in Gibellina
My background in psychology inevitably influences the way I photograph places.
The Cretto Burri is not simply an artwork. It is a physical representation of absence.
Beneath those white concrete forms lie streets, houses and lives interrupted by an earthquake.
What fascinates me is that the location asks a difficult question:
How do you photograph something that is no longer there?
For me, the answer is not found in documentation but in interpretation.
Sometimes it is a solitary figure walking through the labyrinth. Sometimes it is the relationship between scale and emptiness. Sometimes it is simply a shadow crossing a wall.
The most powerful images often emerge when we stop trying to explain everything and allow the viewer to feel something instead.
Sicily · © Raffaele Ferrari
The Cretto Burri: Beyond the Sicilian Postcard
Sicily is one of the most visually rich regions in Europe.
The baroque beauty of Noto, the energy of Palermo, the volcanic landscapes around Mount Etna and the timeless fishing villages along the coast all offer extraordinary photographic opportunities.
Yet the Cretto Burri occupies a completely different space.
It is quieter.
More contemplative.
Less immediate.
And perhaps for that reason, more rewarding.
It invites photographers to move beyond the search for iconic views and engage with something deeper: memory, form and visual storytelling.
For me, it remains one of the most compelling photography locations in Sicily.
What the Cretto Burri Teaches Photographers
Every location teaches something different.
The Cretto Burri teaches patience.
It teaches simplicity.
It teaches the value of removing distractions and trusting composition.
Most importantly, it reminds us that photography is not always about finding extraordinary subjects.
Sometimes it is about learning to see ordinary elements in a different way.
Lines.
Light.
Space.
Silence.
Experience Sicily Beyond the Obvious
My Sicily Photography Workshops are designed for photographers who want more than beautiful locations.
Together we explore Sicily through light, atmosphere, culture and visual storytelling, working in small groups of maximum 4 participants and adapting each day to the conditions we find.
The goal is not simply to return home with more photographs.
It is to return home seeing differently.
Experience Sicily beyond the postcard.
Small groups, maximum 4 participants. No deposit required to reserve your place. The workshop departs even with a single participant.
Discover the Sicily Workshop →
If the landscapes of Sicily speak to something in you, you may also find resonance in the morning fog of
Tuscany
— cypress roads, rolling hills and the timeless light of Val d’Orcia —
or in the silence of
Venice at dawn,
where water, stone and fog create a visual geometry all their own.
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