Hylonicum

Light and its residues, by Nicola Polloni

ITERATIONS

Etna

I live close to the volcano and go up whenever I can: it is my favourite place in Sicily, possibly anywhere. Etna is a landscape still being made: lava fields cut by roads, snow over black ground, structures half-buried by eruptions nobody remembers. Walking there means crossing a form that has not settled and will not. The photographs follow the mountain as it covers, exposes, and redraws its own surface, human passage being a temporary line across it.

Wide black-and-white view of Mt Etna with lava fields, vegetation, clouds, and distant slopes.
Etna volcanic slope with dark ridges, pale grasses, and clouds moving over the mountain.
Small group of people standing on an Etna ridge, with the sea and bright horizon in the distance.
Two people walking along a dark volcanic ridge on Etna beneath a heavy clouded sky.
Etna crater landscape seen from above, with paths crossing dark volcanic slopes.
Wide view of Mt Etna with craters, lava fields, pale vegetation, and layered volcanic slopes.
Large Etna crater rising from dark volcanic ground under a broken cloudy sky.
Smooth volcanic slope on Etna with low vegetation and a small dark object in the distance.
Etna lava plain with isolated rocks, dark ash, distant slopes, and pale streaks on the mountain.
Wide Etna landscape with rough lava field in the foreground and a smoking volcanic cone beyond.
Minimal Etna landscape of smooth dark volcanic slopes with faint paths and small rocks.
Group of walkers crossing an Etna slope near steam or smoke, with lava fields descending behind them.
Open Etna plateau with dark lava fields, pale clouds, and a distant horizon.
Smoking Etna slope with clouds and pale streaks of ash or snow across the mountain.
Group of hikers walking along a ridge on Etna, with smoke and clouds around the volcanic slopes.
Dark volcanic cone on Etna with pale ash traces and clouds above.
Etna ridge partly covered by drifting cloud or smoke.
Distant view of Etna craters and winding paths, with smoke rising at the side.
Line of hikers crossing a broad Etna slope, with dark lava fields and distant landscape below.
Empty Etna volcanic valley between dark rounded slopes under a cloudy sky.
Broad Etna cone with faint smoke or cloud above and small figures on the lower slope.
Hikers resting and standing on an Etna slope, with a vast distant landscape beyond them.
Smooth Etna slope with a winding path and tiny figures along the ridge.
Dark Etna ridge with a crater opening and a tiny figure on the left horizon.
Orange ladybird on rough black lava stones on Mt Etna.
Etna snow field crossing dark volcanic slopes in strong black-and-white contrast.
Patches of snow lying across a dark Etna lava plain under a pale sky.
Hikers walking across a broad snow field on Etna, with volcanic slopes in the background.
Two people walking on an Etna path between dark volcanic slopes and a large patch of snow.
Snow field and dark lava slopes on Etna, with the summit rising in the distance.
Low view across rough Etna lava stones towards distant volcanic cones.
Cable car pylon on Etna with wires crossing an empty volcanic road and crater landscape.
Winding Etna road cutting through dark volcanic hills and pale ash slopes.
Rusted metal remains partly buried in rough Etna lava stones.
Concrete structure on Etna with graffiti reading “Etna against touristification”, surrounded by broken volcanic debris.

Places and dates
Mt Etna, 2024–2026.