Giò Giusa, the photographer of Etna

So beautiful that immortalizing it is almost a custom. At least as much as admiring its magnificence, its strength. That’s why from all over the world, professionals, tourists or simple enthusiasts decide to photograph Etna every day. As Giò Giusa also does, a photographer appreciated by the best magazines in the sector at an international level and in love with his land. We had a chat with him to discover his favorite places and understand what it feels like to be at high altitude, on a mountain, but with a look out to sea.

Tell us more about you: when and why did you start taking pictures?

At 11 -12 years I already had the first “symptoms”. I remember one detail: my mother often bought powdered detergent for the washing machine, for a period inside they gave a small, disposable camera with a roll of film as a gift; although of very poor quality, with this I went to the nearby countryside to photograph everything that happened. I did not take the first rolls of paper to get them printed. For a few years then I think I stopped, maybe I was thinking about the girls, the first loves, I no longer had thoughts for photography. At 16 or so I bought a compact one with just over 100 thousand lire, a Yashica. It had a micro display that showed me the photos I had taken and eventually rewind the roll automatically, I think it seemed a tool at the forefront of those times. I took my first photos more decent to Oscar, my collie, but following his death due to an unfortunate incident in which I was present, I also decided to snatch all his photos.

Then came the passion for our Sicilian landscape and for Etna …

I am a landscape artist, so everything that speaks of the landscape that is sea, mountain or hill, for me it is good to photograph. Of course, Etna is what pushed me towards the real passion for photography, which then combined with that for hiking has created a perfect combination of which I can not do without. Etna is my favorite subject, every day I find myself in Sicily I look for it with the look, dozens and dozens of times a day to look for a detail, a particular, if there is wind, smoke, activity or other. Eventually you inevitably end up falling in love with it.

Your favourite places on Etna?

On Etna and on every side everything is beautiful, every place shows us a very precise era with its details and details, from medium to low altitudes above the summit craters, but my unbridled passion is the latter, the top . Up there you have the feeling of being on top of the world, above all else, where beyond it is impossible, and despite having the good fortune to set foot there about 40 times a year, every time it is always a different emotion. Change the landscape, the clouds, the colors, what you see today is not what you saw yesterday or you’ll see tomorrow, and I really think that at least once in a lifetime every fan must go there.

What is the best time to visit Mount Etna?

Surely the months of July and August are the most chaotic, especially on the South side that – touristically speaking – are full. I would recommend May, June and September (less touristy and less hot than in the central months and especially in recent years it grazes temperatures out of the norm). I remember that alone you can not venture anyway over 2800-2900 meters. In order to be able to do trekking that leads up to the summit craters it is compulsory to rely on the Alpine or Vulcanological Guides, the only professional figures authorized to this type of excursion.

Your advice “by local” on the most beautiful place to visit in Sicily?

It is obvious: Etna. Each side has its uniqueness and particularity, it would take weeks available to visit every corner. There are the wonderful lava flow, the “Ice Cave” (“Grotta del Gelo”), the perennial glacier to the south of Europe. Or the “Rasponi cave”, so called because Raspberry plants grow at the entrance. And then the “Serracozzo” Cave, nestled between the birch trees in the Citelli locality, the approximately 300 side craters scattered around inside the towns or – pushing beyond where it is impossible – the summit craters to over 3270m.

The photo you have not taken yet and would you like to shoot?

As a great lover of Volcanoes, my dream would be to photograph them all. Surely Iceland in the first place, but also the Piton de la Fournase in the Island of Reunion, the Kilauea on the island of Hawaii and the Erta Ale in Ethiopia known as “The Gateway to Hell”.

Where can people buy your photos?

Mine is just a great passion and not a job, some shots are unique, and go around the world for the web, and inevitably are noticed by some person who, interested, contact me and we agree. Anyone interested can contact me via email: gio74giusa@libero.it or on Facebook.