Sicily not Alaska
by Salvatore Di Gregorio
Sicily Not Alaska is a photographic project that questions the boundaries between reality and imagination, history and fiction, exploring how the transformation of a place can, over time, become its reality. Set in a real Sicily, the project imagines what the island would look like if, instead of Alaska, it had become the 49th state of the United States.
Inspired by a specific historical moment, 1943, when Sicily was temporarily governed by an American military administration following Operation Husky, the work constructs a vision of an “American Sicily”, blending Western imagery with influences from the Southern states of the United States.
Through a visual language reminiscent of contemporary cinema and American street photography, the project observes and documents the island as if it were Texas or Arizona, staging a cultural short circuit between Sicily and America.
