CRASTOS (Stones) / 1995–2021 — Stone Paths

Salvatore Ligios’s CRASTOS project is a photographic journey through Sardinia centred on stone as a witness to human history. Its subjects include prehistoric monuments, caves, megalithic structures, castles, roads, petroglyphs, memorial stones, churches, tombstones and sculpture. Brief captions identify the place and period of each artefact.

The work deliberately uses black and white, combining deep-black framing, burnt surfaces, alternating darkness and light, religious and secular symbols, details and wide views, and both traditional and abstract visual treatments. Together, the images explore what the project calls a “stone civilization.”

Ligios began the photographic campaign in the early 1990s. Soter published its first volume in 1995; that edition later sold out. With support from Surrau and the involvement of president Tino Demuro, the project’s concluding section became a display of large-format prints along the Vigne Surrau walkway.

Ligios has worked with photography since the 1970s and has published more than 50 photographic books. He directed the Su Palatu photography museum from 2000 to 2009, taught photography at the Academy of Fine Arts in Sassari from 2008 to 2015, and has served as president of the Su Palatu Fotografia cultural association since 2011.