Maggots feasting on your innards

[Gianluca Drago]

I wouldn't even know where to begin explaining this photo to someone who doesn't speak Italian. This is the outside of a small monumental cemetery — monumental in its own modest way — of a village unknown to most maps, carrying all the dignity that comes from its purpose and its history.

"Le grandi maialate," the words on the plastic banner (an advertisement for a nearby restaurant), are barely translatable in their vulgarity. It evokes images of great gorging on pork, or of things that happen in the shadows of a brothel. How this restaurant ever obtained regional endorsement, spelled out in black and white on the sign, and permission to display itself in front of a cemetery is beyond me.

When you have maggots feasting on your innards, you know something has gone wrong.

 

[Pete Askew]

Well at least you ended up with a great title for your image!

I would never have understood the significance without your explanation, but the contrast of the sign with cemetery is quite striking anyway. I especially like the contrast between the clarity of the building on the poster with the facades of the graves lost in shadow. And the composition is very satisfying overall too.

 

[Gary R. Smith]

I love the high contrast on the left side of your shot but (as you say) since I don't speak/read Italian, the sign does nothing for me.