Photographer Levine Aronovich turns his lens on the rich tapestry of Easter traditions in Southern Italy, bringing to life the region’s vibrant processions and deeply rooted rituals. Known for his evocative monochrome photography, Aronovich delves into the heart of Italian culture, capturing the essence of community, faith, and festivity.
Levine, who lives in Paris and is half Argentinian, captured the Holy Week celebrations in Southern Italy in 2023 and his photographs transport viewers to the narrow, sun-drenched streets of Naples, Sicily, Palermo and Enna where centuries-old customs unfold. The interplay of light and shadow in Aronovich’s photographs accentuates the emotional depth of these ritualistic Easter moments, highlighting the contrast with the modern world that encroaches upon them.
Aronovich’s work is an exploration of identity and heritage as well as a valuable documentation of Southern Italian Easter traditions that have lasted for centuries. Aronovich invites the viewer to witness the convergence of personal faith and communal tradition through his lens. Photographers have long been drawn to Southern Italy’s rituals, seeking to preserve and interpret the complex interplay between religion, folklore, and community life. Aronovich’s evocative photographs offer a contemporary perspective on timeless traditions and invite reflection upon the importance of shared human experience.
“For three years now, my photographic work has focused on the practice of costume in Europe. Initially, I was interested in religious manifestations in the public space.My first trip to Italy enabled me to document the events of Holy Week (Easter) in the south of the country, in Naples, and in Sicily, in Palermo and Enna. These areas are still very strongly marked by Catholic traditions, and religious events punctuate local life. In Palermo, Good Friday is an important part of community life, when the city’s various parishes march through
the streets carrying statues of Jesus and the Virgin Mary. Believers mingle with tourists. In Enna, in the heart of Sicily, the various processions are dressed up as different characters, and the actors in the ceremony wear the famous penitent’s costume. In Naples, the processions are even more local, taking place on a neighborhood scale. More confidential, they are often little known to the general public and tourists.” Levine Aronovich
Aronovich’s black and white photography offers a beautiful view of Easter through the lens of Southern Italian Catholic tradition. His artistic and personal curiosity of ‘The staging of the costumed body’ explores costume as a means of connecting with age-old tradition, leading him to document the events, rituals, public performance, and traditions of Holy Week in Naples, Sicily, Palermo and Enna. This togetherness of community and costume appears in his photographs as a vestige of a bygone era, both religious and secular, and as a means of updating and revitalising, through public performance, a set of rituals that were sometimes thought to have been forgotten.
A mesmerising look into the manifestations of costume and religion in public spaces, through the lens of a beautiful art practise, heralding longevity, philosophy, togetherness and resurrection of rituals and expressionism this Easter.
Levine Aronovich was born in Paris in 1993. After completing his baccalaureate, Levine studied philosophy at the EHESS, graduating with a master’s degree in 2018. Alongside his philosophy studies, he discovered silver-based photography techniques at a photo club in Paris; shooting, developing, and printing, which he practiced for several years.
His grandfather, Ricardo Aronovich, who was an important Director of Photography in the history of Argentine and French cinema, lent him his first Leica M3, with which he photographed his family and friends in their everyday lives and travels.
Today, Levine works with the Publimod laboratory in Paris for film processing, and with famous printer Fred Goyeau, based in Ivry- sur-Seine, for printing. Levine recently acquired a medium-format camera and he’s currently developing a new project on cosplayers and conventions in various European countries.
View Levine Aronovich’s photography here: https://levinearonovich.com/
All images © Levine Aronovich
