Of the many images taken in the epicenter areas of the terrible earthquake that struck Emilia Romagna in 2012, I preferred not to publish the faces of people, who are normally the focus of my reports.

This time I wanted to show things, especially the things that were and are no longer. In this way I tried to make sure that the pain, too evident in the astonished faces of the refugees in the tented camps or in the eyes of those who witnessed the removal of the remains of their home, glimpsing for the last time their belongings mixed with the rubble, was everyone’s pain.

These photographs are, as always, part of a much wider reportage that recounts some days spent in the rubble and refugee camps of Cavezzo, San Felice sul Panaro, Mirandola, Galeazza, immediately after the tragic event.

History stopped flowing in these villages, abandoned by their inhabitants in a few minutes. Time has stopped because men make history, not things or stones. And with no one crossing them, the streets and squares freeze time, waiting to be brought back to life.