Every winter between mid November and beginning of February the sun fails to rise above the flanks of the Alps, leaving the Northern Italian village of Viganella completely in shadow. Situated in a narrow valley at the end of an 80-kilometer road is subjected to an exodus of its population. Only the center of the village is inhabited, merely by elderly people.
Residents of Viganella and of the neighboring villages who face the same problem blame the lack of sunlight in winter. The mayor raised funds for a large computer-operated mirror, to be built 500 meters up the slope high above the village. For seven hours a day it reflects the sunlight into the central square of the village.
The mirror is useful to defrost icy roads. And as an inexpected gift it illuminated the house of a lady celebrating her 90th birthday.
The work is made of several photographic chapters, each reveals part of the relation between the mountain and its residents. In the mountain regions old laws have always ruled relations between man and nature.
