Ludovicu by Mariano Silletti

Ludovicu’s disappearance. He arrived in Montescaglioso ( Italy ), with his family, from Romania . Ludovicu was 57 years old and he was suffering from Alzheimer. One day in December 2013, he went out from his home and he never came back.

Ludovicu’s disappearance. He arrived in Montescaglioso ( Italy ), with his family, from Romania . Ludovicu was 57 years old and he was suffering from Alzheimer.

One day in December 2013, he went out from his home and he never came back. Veronica, his wife, waited for him for hours.  She  finally  came to our police station.

Ludovicu’s story has touched my heart. I am a police officer and I have a passion for photography .  I did not want this story to be forgotten. In the Winter, it becomes dark very early. Ludovicu’s home is located in the town center. Everything had the taste of poverty. The walls were damp with peeling paint. Veronica was very heartbroken and tired. We needed her husband’s clothes: she slowly gave us his trousers and some of his underwear. The dogs had to sniff them so as to find a trace of the man.

We would  like to give some hope to Veronica. We would like to fight the evil premonitions and try to find her husband. We tried to find him in the countryside, we entered the abandoned cottages. Where we found other stories, we came across  other women and men’s lives. It was such a melancholic winter. While we were trying to find him, we stumble in so many different lifestyles. We came across other emigrants, the shepherds, the peasants and the citizens from our town. I looked at them with different eyes. Our  search was persistent, my goals were out of focus. I had come across a mystery and suddenly I realized it. I saw fear and pain. A man suddenly disappears without any trace. I was surrounded by shadows and I wanted them to vanish. After  winter, spring came. I wanted to find some encouragement even in these obscure months. Uptil now, no traces have been found of  Ludovicu’s  disappearance.

mariano silletti_02

mariano silletti _01

Outside the police station, surrounded by fog.

mariano silletti_03

It was possible to breathe the poverty in the air.  Just like the dust , lying on the furniture and ascending the wet and  peeling walls. It was similar to a thin cloth that covered the whole home.  Nevertheless, everything was tidy. Austerity wasfought  by the meticulous, even if little, details and the almost exasperated dignity: the bed was made, there were some materials covering the holes in the wall, the clothes were all pleated and tidy.

mariano silletti_05

We have worked with our colleagues from the canine unit. We had to have some of Ludovicu’s clothes.

mariano silletti_06

During the winter, it becomes dark very early.  During the search it seemed to darken even  earlier. I suddenly discover a melancholic and austere winter landscape. But we are stubborn, every detail is precious for our search.

mariano silletti_07

Information from one of the  many car drivers stopped during the searches.

mariano silletti_08

One of the so many abandoned cottages that we  controlled.

mariano silletti_09

Inside these abandoned cottages we come across other stories, it seems a novel with a lot of chapters. Other Rumenian people try to hide themselves from us. We realize how  each one of them have their own misery. We start our searches again.

mariano silletti_10

One of my colleagues  has to get ready for the  roadblocks inside and outside the town.

mariano silletti_11

The stories in this novel are not finished. During the searches we found many other stories. We found other  emigrants, other shepherds, other peasants…

mariano silletti_12

To tell this story I usually used the blur effect. I wanted my lens to be more faithful as possible. We were surrounded by shadows that did not want to vanish. I was trying to find the light, so  as to enlighten these dark months. A real comfort from night and darkness. Ludovicu is still hiding. Somewhere the darkness is still surrounding him.

About Mariano Silletti

I was born in 1972 in Pisticci, i live in Matera (Italy). My personal photographic research explores issues such as street photography end reportage documentary. I am part of the group of italian street photography InQuadra. [Official Website]

More Stories

Gray zone by Valery Melnikov

Gray zone by Valery Melnikov

First time I visited the Donbass region was at the beginning of summer of 2014, right at the beginning of the military conflict. Nobody knew at that time how long this conflict would last, and how difficult and painful the consequences of this conflict would be.
Osamu Jinguji : Everything is in flux and nothing is permanent

Osamu Jinguji : Everything is in flux and nothing is permanent

I believe that the essence of the arts including every picture is also a succession of “Creation and Destruction” in this world. At the same time, I make sure that their conducts and processes for creating every art are the works finding light, beauty or brilliant matters like “Hope”, “Dreams”, and “Faith”.
Makeshift by Paweł Starzec

Makeshift by Paweł Starzec

This common agreement takes shape of a narrative concerning both past and present times, serving as an explanation of the world and unifying the group around it.
https://www.dodho.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/bannerpr.jpg

We invite you to participate in the first edition of the Portrait Photography Awards. Our call is open to any artistic interpretation of portrait photography.

https://www.dodho.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/BAnImage.jpg

ImageRights provides intelligent image search and copyright enforcement services to photo agencies and professional photographers worldwide.

https://www.dodho.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/mono2022.jpg

The best 100 images along with the winning images published in the yearly book “Monochromatic – Best Photographers of 2022”

Call For Entries #24 | After 23 editions and more than 100 published photographers, our print edition has proven to be a simply effective promotional channel.

No kids around by William Guilmain

No kids around by William Guilmain

What’s the purpose of his presence in these places? Is he looking for his own kid ? Is he looking for his own childhood? Is he one of these adults affected by the “Peter Pan syndrome “? Is he trying to trick the old age? Perhaps this series talks about mourning.
Travel Photography; Charm of China by Victoria Knobloch

Travel Photography; Charm of China by Victoria Knobloch

Victoria Knobloch is a German photographer based in Leipzig. She is known for her soulful and authentic black-and-white style. Her work embraces the fields of vanishing cultures
China ; Shaking Hands by Yang Gu

China ; Shaking Hands by Yang Gu

The title “Shaking Hands” is inspired by the “hand-shaking buildings” in big cities in China. In order to maximize their living area, the residents of these buildings independently reconstruct and expand each floor horizontally outwards.
Documentary Photography : South Africa by Claudio Rasano

Documentary Photography : South Africa by Claudio Rasano

My portraits are frontal taken at eye level,looking directly and ahead, the face cast in shadow showing a strong and determined expression.
Neverland by Robb Johnson

Neverland by Robb Johnson

Neverland is a visual chapter in my ongoing body of work, which addresses the journey we are all on, our lives and experiences. I have pondered this subject since my 30’s and it still leaves a giant question that seems to go in a circle.
Old Dhaka By Mushfiqur Rahman

Old Dhaka By Mushfiqur Rahman

Old Dhaka is the most crowded and oldest part of Dhaka city, always on its toes, in a boisterous way. Chaotically beautiful!! I found that spite, that vigor for life, that chaos in Old Dhaka; the kind of chaos that doesn’t make you feel uncomfortable but rather invites you to immerse in life whole heartedly.
Five minutes with Einar Sira

Five minutes with Einar Sira

I try to work very slow with my pictures, trying to get the right light and exposure. I do most of my work in my garden. There i have a pond and also the rest of the backdrops i have built.
Street Photography; Me, her and Tokyo by Andrea Francolini

Street Photography; Me, her and Tokyo by Andrea Francolini

“Me, her and Tokyo” is a collection of images all shot on a Samsung Note II while roaming the streets of Tokyo, pushing my daughter in her pram with my wife at my side.
Journey to the edge of the room by Natalia Ershova

Journey to the edge of the room by Natalia Ershova

Journey to the edge of the room The heroes of my project are people, who barely ever leave their home. Many of them work at home, others are sponsored by their relatives.
Entre Mar y Tierra by Vinicius Ferreira

Entre Mar y Tierra by Vinicius Ferreira

The island that stopped in the time of the financial capital, but follow in search of other senses, was the way that I chose to document. A place that challenge the life based on the consume and leaves us with so little
Detroit From Above by Brian day

Detroit From Above by Brian day

Brian Day was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1977. He is currently Chief Technology Officer at a health care organization in Detroit, where he has worked since 2008.
India in Search of Gender Equality by Francisco Alcalá

India in Search of Gender Equality by Francisco Alcalá

According to Dr. Vasa Prabhakar (SAP College) in India, discrimination against women can start in the womb. Gender inequality, patriarchy, caste system, dowry system is an acute and persistent problem.
Scottish Highlands : Darksome by Michael O. Snyder

Scottish Highlands : Darksome by Michael O. Snyder

The Scottish Highlands have a power to capture the imagination in a way that few places on this planet can.  Perched on the craggy edge of the North Atlantic, the Highlands instantly conjure up images of rocky precipices, lonely lochs, and rainswept moors. 
Second World War; Za-bris by Robert Hutinski

Second World War; Za-bris by Robert Hutinski

The Second World War that ended seventy years ago has profoundly affected many human fates in Slovenia no less than elsewhere; so much so that it has become deeply ingrained in the collective memory of the land and the people.
Water Moods by Alex Axon

Water Moods by Alex Axon

I started Water Moods project as a mirror to Urban Moods, only this time with a specific thing in mind - to use long exposures to create feelings of tranquility, where you can get an extra breath every time you watch the photos.
Desert : Shadows of silence by Basim Ghomorlou

Desert : Shadows of silence by Basim Ghomorlou

The aesthetics of desert nature in black and white delivers universal feelings. Feelings that a photograph in color washes out: roaring hush, violent calm, muted screams.

Featured Stories

Self-portrait project : Exposure by Jaqueline Vanek

Self-portrait project : Exposure by Jaqueline Vanek

Self-portrait project focused on the transformation of oneself, against the prejudices of the general society towards freedom of expression and to be who one really is without hiding before anything.
Portraits by Richard Ansett

Portraits by Richard Ansett

My style and relationship to photography has been built from this foundation and I have come to realize that my fascination with other people’s lives is entirely relative to my own lack of understanding and sense of dislocation.
Kibera by Marcel Kolacek

Kibera by Marcel Kolacek

Kibera. The largest slum in Africa. With absolute certainty can not say it, but it's pretty huge, especially population density. Various sources state different numbers
Street’s people; Hanoi by Riccardo Magherini

Street’s people; Hanoi by Riccardo Magherini

Hanoi series was selected and published in our print edition 19. All the images of the series are quite portraits of street’s people, surrounded by their environment.
Portraits by Ewa Cwikla

Portraits by Ewa Cwikla

The power of capturing the daily instant, to have the ability to convert the ordinary into a unique moment, because her camera and her life are two indissoluble concepts.
Intimate portraits of animals; Behind Glass by Anne Berry

Intimate portraits of animals; Behind Glass by Anne Berry

Behind Glass is a collection of photographs made in monkey houses of small zoos throughout Europe. Anne Berry is recognized for her ability to create lyrical, intimate portraits of animals.
Still Life – Mushrooms by Dale M. Reid

Still Life – Mushrooms by Dale M. Reid

Today my subject matter features floral, mushroom and pear studies. My mission is to capture and present a unique perspective that engages the viewer and embodies a concept or tells a story.
Spirit of the Village by Oliver Klink

Spirit of the Village by Oliver Klink

Un-numbered homes are the norm, as everybody knows each other.Streets wind in un-orderly fashion over streams of running water, sometimes fresh often as open sewage.
Fetish Ballad by MagLau

Fetish Ballad by MagLau

MagLau has just released his new book Fetish Ballad with German publisher Verlag Kettler. It is the result of a three years' road trip into the underground world of Tokyo, Amsterdam, Paris, Brussels and Berlin.
Intimidades by Guillermo Ignacio Rodríguez Lateulade

Intimidades by Guillermo Ignacio Rodríguez Lateulade

Intimidades is born from the spiritual claim about the hyper-sexualization of bodies and the subsequent trivialization of these by the, not so recent, vulgar vision of the cultural industry.
Marine Species by Wesley Dombrecht

Marine Species by Wesley Dombrecht

The idea for the series ‘Marine Species’ started with my fascination for the sea, water and everything that lives in it. In this series I want to give the viewer a different look at a variety off sea life, that has been portrayed in a very aesthetic way, minimalistic, where the focus is on the subject, with a playful link incorporated in it.
Altitude by Hengki Koentjoro

Altitude by Hengki Koentjoro

It’s one of the utmost forms of joy in life: the delight of waking up in the youngest hour of the morning, racing with the break of dawn to ascend the height of the earth.
India; Pilgrims and faith by Olivier Borson

India; Pilgrims and faith by Olivier Borson

My interest for photography dates from my adolescence with my passion for astrophotography. I expanded my field of view and I began to photograph my surroundings.
Mike Ruiz, The photographer to the stars

Mike Ruiz, The photographer to the stars

Ruiz, who is of French Canadian and Filipino-Spanish ancestry,was born in Montreal in 1964, but raised in Repentigny, Quebec, Canada.
Adorned by Jady Bates

Adorned by Jady Bates

Women no longer feel the need to please the previously-ordained-in-media's "male gaze." Females are finding their voice and their own visions in how to adorn themselves: women according to women.
Hyung S. Kim – Haenyeo: Women of the Sea

Hyung S. Kim – Haenyeo: Women of the Sea

The photographer, Hyung S. Kim who was inspired by the historical and geographical uniqueness of “Haenyeo” known as a female diver for living

Trending Stories

Time and space; Suspended by Claudia Orsetti

Time and space; Suspended by Claudia Orsetti

These photos are part of an ongoing series called Suspended. During the quarantine – somehow a forced situation of suspended time – I’ve had the chance of reflecting on my own relationship with time and space.
Photographic artist; Gray Series by Kathy Corday

Photographic artist; Gray Series by Kathy Corday

A photographic artist, Kathy Corday's motto is, "Magic happens in the blink of an eye." As a former Walt Disney Imagineer and current PBS talent, Ms. Corday’s camera is an extension of her soul.
A Nobel´s Mess  by Wiebke Bosse

A Nobel´s Mess by Wiebke Bosse

Wiebke Bosse is always looking for unseen, ephemeral moments and situations.At the Cercle Suédois during Paris fashion week, she had the incredible chance of shooting in the inspirational mess inside Alfred Nobel's former office.
Patagonia by Nias Zavatta

Patagonia by Nias Zavatta

Patagonia. Suspended atmosphere is silence, is no time around us. More you go down throw South America and more you start a deep dialogue with loneliness and frailty. Nature becomes the main part of this relation: it just enters, sometimes with violence sometimes with gentleness. 
Tea women by Elena Kalyuzhnaya

Tea women by Elena Kalyuzhnaya

In 1850-60s Britain brought Indian Tamils to Sri-Lanka as slaves. They had no citizenship till 1990s and some of them only got it in 2003. Owners of the plantation have been changing since then but the life of workers stayed the same. 
Discarded by Steve Geer

Discarded by Steve Geer

In Chicago, behind the shops and restaurants, there are service alleys. These narrow canyons are lined with dumpsters which are filled each day and emptied each night.
Road to Kona ; An Ironman Triathlon by Alessandro Annunziata

Road to Kona ; An Ironman Triathlon by Alessandro Annunziata

An Ironman Triathlon is one of a series of long-distance triathlon races organized by the World Triathlon Corporation (WTC), consisting of a 2.4-mile (3.86 km) swim, a 112-mile (180.25 km) bicycle ride and a marathon 26.22-mile (42.20 km) run
Ten Days in Tokyo by Olga Sondyk

Ten Days in Tokyo by Olga Sondyk

This is a diary of the western visitor who wants to monumentalize everyday life where all details matters and every object has its own importance and beauty.
After the Firebird by Ekaterina Vasilyeva

After the Firebird by Ekaterina Vasilyeva

Russian village is rapidly sinking into oblivion. The sad statistics shows that in Russia over the last two decades almost 25 thousands rural settlements disappeared with the map of Russia.
Visual poetry : White Moon by Tatiana Saavedra

Visual poetry : White Moon by Tatiana Saavedra

Tatiana Saavedra is a a moon enthusiast and photographer based in Portugal who tries to create visual poetry because there is something very special in colors and dreams. From a young age she has been interested in photography and cinematography later on.
Uman pilgrimage by Tomer Ifrah

Uman pilgrimage by Tomer Ifrah

Every year, tens of thousands of jewish pilgrims travel from around the world and mainly from Israel to Uman, Ukraine to celebrate the Jewish New Year, during the holiday of "Rosh Hashana".
Life after death by Edgaras Vaicikevicius

Life after death by Edgaras Vaicikevicius

After the death of a person remains only what he created during his lifetime. Trees also are born and die. However, only people can extend the natural life of the tree. When the arm of creator touches the tree, the tree is reviving.

Other Stories

stay in touch
Join our mailing list and we'll keep you up to date with all the latest stories, opportunities, calls and more.
We use Sendinblue as our marketing platform. By Clicking below to submit this form, you acknowledge that the information you provided will be transferred to Sendinblue for processing in accordance with their terms of use
We’d love to
Thank you for subscribing!
Submission
Dodho Magazine accepts submissions from emerging and professional photographers from around the world.
Their projects can be published among the best photographers and be viewed by the best professionals in the industry and thousands of photography enthusiasts. Dodho magazine reserves the right to accept or reject any submitted project. Due to the large number of presentations received daily and the need to treat them with the greatest respect and the time necessary for a correct interpretation our average response time is around 5/10 business days in the case of being accepted.
- Between 10/30 images of your best images, in case your project contains a greater number of images which are part of the same indivisible body of work will also be accepted. You must send the images in jpg format to 1200px and 72dpi and quality 9. (No borders or watermarks)
- A short biography along with your photograph. (It must be written in the third person)
- Title and full text of the project with a minimum length of 300 words. (Texts with lesser number of words will not be accepted)
This is the information you need to start preparing your project for its presentation
To send it, you must compress the folder in .ZIP format and use our Wetransfer channel specially dedicated to the reception of works. Links or projects in PDF format will not be accepted. All presentations are carefully reviewed based on their content and final quality of the project or portfolio. If your work is selected for publication in the online version, it will be communicated to you via email and subsequently it will be published.
Contact
How can we help? Got an idea or something you'd like share? Please use the adjacent form, or contact contact@dodho.com
Thank You. We will contact you as soon as possible.
Submission
Dodho Magazine accepts submissions from emerging and professional photographers from around the world.
Their projects can be published among the best photographers and be viewed by the best professionals in the industry and thousands of photography enthusiasts. Dodho magazine reserves the right to accept or reject any submitted project. Due to the large number of presentations received daily and the need to treat them with the greatest respect and the time necessary for a correct interpretation our average response time is around 5/10 business days in the case of being accepted. This is the information you need to start preparing your project for its presentation.
To send it, you must compress the folder in .ZIP format and use our Wetransfer channel specially dedicated to the reception of works. Links or projects in PDF format will not be accepted. All presentations are carefully reviewed based on their content and final quality of the project or portfolio. If your work is selected for publication in the online version, it will be communicated to you via email and subsequently it will be published.
Get in Touch
How can we help? Got an idea or something you'd like share? Please use the adjacent form, or contact contact@dodho.com
Thank You. We will contact you as soon as possible.