On the 6th of April 2009 the historical centre of the Italian town of L'Aquila was severely damaged by an earthquake. In his work, which deals with L’Aquila and the consequences of the earthquake, Massimo Mastrorillo shows us how the landscape constantly changes in an emergency situation, without any serious long-term planning lying behind its evolution. Frozen in images these temporary landscapes look everlasting.

What makes one city centre better than another? What elements raise a metropolis to being a model to imitate? Massimo Mastrorillo shows us that the answer is in a combination of apparent contradictions. Modern conveniences, but also history, traditions and the suggestion of eternity. Spectacular buildings, but also trees and water. In CITY MODELS Mastrorillo investigates the contrast between the desires of the human soul and outwardly brutal urban planning. How does a feeling of being at home arise within them?

Although Syria is known as being overwhelmingly Muslim, there is an active Christian minority living there, comprising about 10 percent of the population. This community has been there since the beginnings of Christianity. According to Massimo Mastrorillo, the various religions in Syria are therefore closer to one another than is often thought.

Massimo Mastrorillo photographed the consequences of the tsunami in hard-hit Banda Aceh. At the same time, he noted that in the rest of Indonesia there was likewise a struggle to survive, for instance in the slums along the railway line in Jakarta or in the small Catholic community of Saint Egidio, which has to maintain itself in the middle of the largest Moslem nation in the world. Even aside from the effects of the tsunami the natural environment also takes a battering. In Pekambara oil extraction causes immense damage to the environment. Seeing that, Mastrorillo suggests in INDONESIA 2005: JUST ANOTHER DAY (2005), one almost gets the impression that with the tsunami nature is wanting to take revenge on man.