Time for another guest post today. This time I’m handing it over to my boyfriend, Murray. He’s a very talented photographer, see more of his work here.  This post talks about photographing in Puglia and includes some beautiful pictures of the region. Enjoy!

Gabriella and I had been together for three years before we visited her Italian home, Cocumola in the Summer of 2012.  We took a month off and drove from Brighton all the way down to the heel of Italy, staying with Gabriella’s family and friends along the way.

Those of you who follow this blog will know how passionate Gabriella is about her Italian roots.  For as long as I’ve known her I’ve heard countless stories about this special place.

Knowing how important this place is to Gabriella, I wanted to get to know it better myself. So I decided to do a little photography project around the local area.  Not wanting to annoy her, or our friends, Ollie and Kathryn who came to stay with us for a week, with my ‘slow photography’.  I decided to get up early in the mornings and go for a couple of hours drive to see what I could find…

After a while I got fed up with the early mornings and started going out in the evenings. On one occasion I went out in the middle of the day, to the beach, which was a mistake – there’s a reason Italians have their siesta in the middle of the day.  The sun was so hot, I could barely touch my black camera.

I never really felt like I finished this project, but Gabriella and I are going back to Cocumola this Summer, so I’m planning to continue.  I think I have title now too.  This part of Italy is called the Mezzogiorno, which translates as Land of the Midday Sun.