On June 22 and 23, I had film shoots for my documentary "Christian Bolt - On Human Beauty" in Carrara and Florence with the sculptor Christian Bolt. Carrara marble is one of the most famous marbles in the world. Christian Bolt studied two years in Carrara and has a special love for marble which is reflected in his sculptures. 

Photographer: Roland Steffen - Gear: LEICA Q2. Pictures not to be used without my explicit permission.

Marble has been quarried since the end of the Roman Republic. It was the Renaissance sculptor Michelangelo who made this marble famous. Until the beginning of the 19th century, the extraction of the heavy stone blocks was extremely laborious and costly, and only technical innovations, such as stone processing machines powered by steam, diesel fuel and electrical energy, made large-scale quarrying possible. As a result, Carrara became the international center of marble processing. In the early 1960s, production was brought into line with demand when quarries in exposed locations were opened up by a network of roads.

Carrara marble was formed in the Tertiary period 30 million years ago as the continental plates of Africa and Europe moved toward each other and arched upward to form the Apuan Alps. In the process, the calcite deposits from dead marine organisms were compressed under high pressure and very high temperatures and thus transformed into marble.