Along the way
These photos were taken in various valleys in the mountains of South Tyrol: Val Passiria, Val d’Ultimo, Valle Aurina, Valle die Funes and Val Gardena as well as in Val Venosta and Provès. The title “Along the way” refers to personal excursions undertaken by the photographer: “My city-dweller’s eye charged with curiosity led me from farm to farm and from valley to valley in search of traces of a once unspoiled homeland.”
In 1997 artist Markus Vallazza wrote the following with regard to the book “Des Weges/Along the way”:
“Leafing through this series of images, I was suddenly and starkly reminded of my childhood years at the end of the war and shortly afterwards when my daily duty of sourcing provisions put me in touch with our family’s farming neighbours. Zipperle’s photos bear witness to the remains of this world. These highly moving pictures show us how life is gradually changing in the Alps – we see their houses, their possessions and their day-to-day jobs.
We find ourselves led through all seasons while making our way through steep mountain pastures towards farmhouses flooded with light and then into the darkness of kitchens, wood-panelled living rooms and barns. We look at human beings whose faces show the telltale signs of harsh weather and hard work. We peer into these rustic interiors – the intimate spaces of these people’s lives – where loaves of bread and rounds of cheese are stacked on shelves, bedsteads and on the tops of cupboards. Installations of so-called “Land Art” automatically come to mind although no such thing is of course intended. One of the pictures is of a whole family of apples – a vast extended family of apples not dissimilar to that of the Hesperides – as they sunbathe on old beds which have become their storage place.”
South Tyrol, Italy
1987 – 1988
