Molise ......not simply black and white
I am passionate about photography, and mostly self-taught, although I did a course at school many years ago, and another many years later at college.
I use the camera to record my version of the world around me, focusing mostly on buildings and landscapes.
I rarely take pictures of people, as I always seem unable to catch a glimpse of the image I want to create.
Now travelling around Molise on my quest to explore the region I am using my camera to record its unique beauty. 
The minute I open my eyes in my little house on the hill, just above the village of Lucito, and look out of the window onto the valley below my heart literally leaps with joy.
I often, walk my five dogs just before the sun is quite up then I can still often see a pink sky over the sea, with the tiny Tremiti islands in the distance.
In contrast in the evening, I can watch the sunset over the Matese mountains. 
What more could I want ... Molise .. Pure bliss from the mountains to the sea.
I have already met some amazing people..
My love for the region led me to write these blogs and I am working on a series of books about the region too.
see my FACEBOOK pages and WEBSITE for more information.
BACK to THE ART of PHOTOGRAPHY
This photograph is by American photographer Ansell Adams.
He only worked in black and white, which of course in the early 1900s he was forced to do, working in the natural world his photographs displayed an exceptional, almost ethereal quality which brought the landscape to life.
Today photography is a completely different matter, as we moved on not only from monochrome, and sepia-toned photography to colour on film and slide to digital photography which hugely increased accessibility to photography as a tool and an art form.
Almost everyone clicks away merrily nowadays with their mobile phones, posting pictures on sites like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram constantly. We do very little today which is not snapped by somebody, often the minute it happens.
But the big question is perhaps is this art ? What of course is art?
Is it merely a form of human expression?
Enough questions..
I am writing about ART... and more specifically ART here in the small Italian region of Molise.
Just looking at photography in this blog there have been a number of famous photographers from the region in the past
My project to explore Molise was inspired by American photogtapher Frank Monaco, whose parents hailed from Cantalupo del Sannio. He wrote a book in the 1950s about the women in Molise, which is quite beautiful.
I cannot seem to capture the soul of a person on film as he did. Looking at his photos I can still feel the pain and serenity of those women, who struggled so hard to bring up families in such hardship.
Going back to the village now, there are still a great many people who remember him taking the photos for the book, and he is still not well known, or recognised in Molise. I was received with great affection and friendship.
In the village of Bonafero there is an exhibition of the work by Tony Vaccaro, an American whose parents came from the village. He is a prolific and accomplished war photographer whose photos still stop you in your tracks.
Although born in America he lived in the village as a small child then returned to the States with his parents to escape the Fascist regime in the 1920s. He finished his education in America then became a soldier, initially working as a SCOUT he had time to pursue an interest in photography and by the end of the war was an official photographer.
He went on to capture the rich and famous on film from
Kennedy to Leonard Cohen
.
For me, the most moving of his photos on display is that of a lone soldier laying prostrate in the snow. It seems to me sum up the bleak futility of war
Molise on the page....
Here in Molise, there is a so much to photograph. I want to jump out of the car at almost every bend in the road to take a picture of a flower, a mountain, a view across a valley, or the trunk of an ancient olive tree.
I am now working with him on a number of my projects.
I have already taken more than six thousand photos and spoken to a lot of people .. I want to meet you too, and share your photos in an exhibition I hope to bring to the UK next Spring
There are other websites and facebook pages dedicated to the beauty of the region
These sites are all Italian sites
