The first of the three images selected by the curators and exhibited in the exhibition “Italiae. From Alinari to the masters of contemporary photography ” is a subject that is very close to my heart, the Venice Lagoon.
Aerial view of the lagoon along the Burano Canal, a texture of sandbanks, canals and ghebi. The “sandbanks” are lands that have emerged permanently even during high tides and are distinguished by the muddy bottoms called “velme” that emerge only when the water withdraws at low tide. The canals are the main waterways while the “ghebi” are that fundamental and convoluted network of minor canals that carries and then drains the water throughout the lagoon in a capillary way. The primeval Venice Lagoon must have had a similar appearance, an apparently inhospitable environment, so treacherous and hostile as to protect the people fleeing from the barbarians, desperate to the point of abandoning Altino and the mainland to seek extreme refuge in this unstable amphibious world.
Swamp of Centrega, 2005 August 12
Nikon D70, Nikkor 12-24mm f / 4 – 1/200 sec f / 6.3 + polarizer
Forte di Belvedere, giardini Boboli, Firenze 25 giugno – 10 ottobre 2021
visite: www.museifirenze.it
Fondazione Alinari per la Fotografia – www.alinari.it
