Diego Orlando

CASTLES MADE OF SAND

Sand dunes are colonized by pioneer plants. These are plants of an extreme environment, affected by climate, wind, by tide, by the movements of the soil. They have an essential attitude to life, without the dramatic tension that plants living at very high altitude display, but with the same necessary ostentation to freedom.

If conditions are good enough, with time, they built more complex communities. Otherwise they start again, with a natural indifference. It is with the same indifferent patient that they enjoy they existence. So is with these people that live on a very long dune of sand, between the Ocean and the Bay where the life is marked by wind, sun, rain and sea. Around they have a huge sky that is the main matter of discussion: all pass around the Banks, but not always all arrive onto them.

If is possible to surf, they surf; if it’s possible to go fishing, they go; if they have to escape because the hurricane is arriving, they escape and if the house or the pier fall down, they built them again. This is the story of the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

Born in 1971, it wasn't until 2003 that I started to work in photography, beginning as an assistant at TPW. My 'inbetween years' saw me in many different directions, including starting a degree in forestry, which all prepared me for my main interests in photography: namely, the relationship between man and nature or man and environment, from the perspective of human daily life. To date this has led me to tell the story of the villages 40 years on from the tragedy of Vajont; to describe what happens to trash once we throw it in thebin; the social impact of tourism on Lake Garda; the Mafia lands now used for agricoluters, and others. Many of these have been published for the Italian edition of National Geographic.
My photographic career has also given me the opportunity to work away from the camera as assistant for a number of Magnum photographers, for their assignments for diverse media such as books, magazines and corporatepublications. I have also worked as a fixer for two stories in National Geographic Magazine, and coodinate the Winephoto Award, which I first organized in 2004 with Fabio Balan.
Through these more pragmatic experiences I have begun to learn how much of a story can be told with photography besides the images themselves, which is becoming increasingly relevant in these image rich times. I live in the countryside outside Venice.