Between sea and memories

Before the digital age, and even before I switched to digital cameras (yes, it's been a few years now!), I used to shoot film almost exclusively in black and white. I had a special affinity with two subjects: fishing boats and a small seaside town, Giovinazzo, in the province of Bari (Puglia, Italy).

Perhaps because I was born and grew up in Bari, where I spent forty years of my life, each photograph that includes both the boats and the town has a unique value for me, almost a small treasure.

This photo still takes me back to the past. It is a digital photo, edited in black and white, precisely because it reminds me of so many film shots taken here. It was 21 December 2010, 4pm, on an unusually foggy day. The fog seemed to have put everything on hold, giving this landscape a timeless atmosphere.

In the foreground, the fishermen's boats seem to be resting on the shore, while just behind, the sea is barely visible and, on the right, Giovinazzo, whose silhouette with the Aragonese tower is so familiar to me. It is a simple picture, but it conveys all the magic of a place that will always be special and unique to me.

Although I cherish this photograph, it is so beautiful that I cannot help but show it to everyone with such pride. Maybe it's nostalgia, maybe it's love for my roots, but every time I look at it I'm emotionally moved.

“The sigh of all the seas breaking in measure round the isles soothed them; the night wrapped them; nothing broke their sleep, until, the birds beginning and the dawn weaving their thin voices in to its whiteness, a cart grinding, a dog somewhere barking, the sun lifted the curtains, broke the veil on their eyes...” (Virginia Woolf, “To the Lighthouse”)