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Larry Racioppo's 1998 photos of a unique tradition at the Giglio Festival.
Inside Street Photography |
The official newsletter of Street Photography Magazine |
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| Friday, 29 Aug 2025 | Reading time: 3 mins | Read online
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The Questua is one of my favorite parts of the annual Giglio Festival in Williamsburg.
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Many people, especially NYC photographers, know about the annual dancing of the Giglio tower.
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| Giglio Meets the Boat |
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The Questua takes place the day before the first carrying of the Giglio and is relatively ignored by the media. It is a specific tradition within the feast: volunteers distribute blessed bread in exchange for donations. In 1998 I spent a day photographing some of these volunteers. They were divided into three groups, according to the Williamsburg mini-neighborhoods they were marching to: Latino-, Polish-, and Italian-American.
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Of course, each group contained a section of the Giglio band. I went with the Italian- American group.
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| The Band Starts Off |
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| Getting the Bread |
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| Volunteers |
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| The Giglio Band Plays |
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One aspect of Questua that I really like is that the bread is not actually “sold”. A volunteer gives a loaf or two of the bread to someone, and almost simultaneously finds money in his/her hand. But no sale actually took place. Sometimes the person receiving the bread invited the entire group into their backyard, and asked for a song to honor a recently deceased relative. The song was rewarded with food and drink. I made some interesting photographs and had a great time, and returned the following day to photograph the carrying of the Giglio.
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| Clarinet Player |
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| Family and Band |
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| Larger Family and Band |
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| Volunteers Around the Pool |
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| Girl with Model of the Giglio |
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| Volunteers and Band |
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| The Exchange |
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| Woman and Model of the Giglio |
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Another Exchange
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| Bread in the Beauty Parlor |
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| Girls with Bread |
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| Larry’s portrait by Anna Delaney |
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When I returned to South Brooklyn in 1970 after two years in California as a VISTA Volunteer, I was 22 years old with no plans and a $30 camera I barely knew how to use. I took a course at the School of Visual Arts, a job with the telephone company and began to photograph my family and friends. Things worked out better than I could have expected. I’ve been making photographs for over 50 years, and have some things I’d like to share.
Check out my book, Aqueduct, here.
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Readers can respond directly to me – larryracioppo@gmail.com.
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