Mauro Marinelli and Rob Lloyd - Under Old Stars: Wanderings in Italian Hill Towns - Kehrer Verlag, fall 2016

Aug 23, 2016 638

At a time when the Census headcount shows that the largest metropolitan areas are growing at far higher
rates, the prognosis does not look good for small towns, which continue in steady decline as young people chase bigger dreams in cities. It's a trend consistent across America and around the world that shows no signs of slowing down.


But the decline of the small town, which holds a revered place in the personal history of many people and many families, means the forfeiture of a small town way of life and way of being—a loss that diminishes us all. From photographer Mauro Marinelli, writer Rob Lloyd, and German fine arts publisher Kehrer, Under Old Stars: Wandering in Italian Hill Towns captures the life of a quintessential small town.


Part documentary record and part imaginative work of art, Under Old Stars sparkles with memorable images and vignettes of small town life. Set in south-central Italy among descendants of refugees who arrived from the eastern Adriatic five-hundred years ago and who speak one of the world's endangered languages, Under Old Stars takes readers to the timeless small towns of their ancestors.


Mauro Marinelli (Old Timers, Burden of Wings) has been a working photographer for nearly 40 years. Raised in an immigrant family in New York and steeped in stories of the old country, he took his camera to discover
for himself the places, people, and old ways that he grew up on. He was joined in this project by poet, TV
producer (Family Feud, To Tell the Truth), and professor Rob Lloyd.


Award-winning commercial and fine art photographer Sean Kernan says that Under Old Stars beckons us into a "village beyond time, and the world that our immigrant ancestors left."


Of interest not only to Italian-Americans, who make up the fourth-largest European ethnic group in America, Under Old Stars appeals to all who trace their ancestry to somewhere else. It is both a record and a celebration of time and people past.


To request a review copy of Under Old Stars: Wanderings in Italian Hill Towns, view high-res images, author bios, and multimedia, visit http://www.mauromarinelli.com/press-packet-under-old-stars/.

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