About this episode

Domingo Milella discusses his journey from a successful photographer to exploring prehistoric caves and the transformation that followed.

What happens when a photographer trades the vast clarity of Mediterranean ruins for the darkness of a prehistoric cave? In this episode of See See by Ceci, visionary Italian artist Domingo Milella takes us on a journey that spans forty thousand years and the full depth of the human spirit. Milella first made his name with luminous large-format photographs of ancient landscapes, the coast of Puglia, the ruins of Petra, the pyramids of Egypt, images of extraordinary stillness that invited the viewer to slow down and breathe. Yet beneath the surface of that early success, a quiet crisis was gathering. In the summer of 2014, at the age of thirty-three, his carefully constructed world collapsed. He retreated to a forgotten village on the Ionian Sea, carrying only two things: his large-format camera and a copy of Moby Dick. Both remained untouched, the camera locked in a cupboard, the book unopened on the nightstand. What followed was a passage through despair and into transformation. Through therapy and the slow archaeology of the self, Milella found his way to the prehistoric caves. There, in total darkness, surrounded by ochre symbols and handprints inscribed tens of thousands of…

People in this episode

Host: Dr. Cecilia Ponce Rivera

Guest: Domingo Milella

Topics covered

• photography
• art
• transformation
• mental health
• prehistoric culture
• self-discovery

Keywords

• photography
• prehistoric caves
• mental health
• art
• self-discovery
• Moby Dick
• transformation

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Moby Dick

Places: Puglia, Petra, Egypt, Ionian Sea, prehistoric caves

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