Nature and Urbanization

It was February 14, 2012, a day of love and emotions, that I had the unique chance to immortalize a moment of uncommon beauty from the “Giuseppe Verdi” Bridge in Parma. The setting of the meeting point between sunset and winter created a singular stimulus, making the urban environment a quasi-magical atmosphere.

The stream bed of Parma, Parma (Italy - 2024-02-14

In the center of the landscape lies the stream bed of Parma, whitened by snow, alternating with sheets of frozen water that shine with interesting reflections. It's an explosion of purity, where the white of winter is mixed with the multicolored reflection of the pools, creating a surprising and magical ambiance.

The unbroken, peaceful sky is bathed in warm hues by the setting sun, casting a golden, embracing light over the whole scene. In this ideal equilibrium of light and shade, to the right is the silhouette of a tree, most refined, which sets the scene with its dignity. Its slender, harmonious shape appears to lead the eye gently across the landscape, imbuing the whole scene with a sense of serenity and poetry.

A bit further up, the creekside buildings blend with sunset light, surfaces tinged gold by reflections, losing their geometrical outlines and gaining an odd visual softness, as though the sun had painted the earth with its own hues.

The “Middle Bridge” (“Ponte di Mezzo” in Italian language), traversed by humans and vehicles, is a part of pulsating modernity that intersects with the serenity of winter landscape, resulting in a contrasting dynamism. The contrast between urban movement and the serenity of nature makes the visual storytelling of the shot richer, narrating a tale where time is arrested between the rhythm of movement and serenity.

The sunset's mystical light was strong enough to enhance color and form, and provide us with a special, almost fairy-tale-like ambiance. It's incredible how something so transient can contain so much beauty and detail, and make the ordinary seem surreal.

This photograph is not just a testament to the evocative potential of light, but also an invitation to see the world anew, where nature and city come together in a silent yet significant hug.

“Her heart was made of liquid sunsets” (Virginia Woolf)

See beyond superficial visual beauty and be inspired by those ephemeral moments that make every landscape into poetry, particularly when light plays at turning the real into the magical.

Taken from “Async”, released in 2017, “Solari” is a composition that seems to belong more to the breath of nature than to the logic of time. After a long battle with cancer, Sakamoto returned to composing with this album — a meditation on impermanence, fragility, and the hidden harmony in details.

Recorded partly in New York and partly in Japan, “Async” blends piano, field recordings, whispered voices, ambient sounds, and silence. “Solari”, in particular, is one of its most suspended and contemplative moments: an invitation to slow listening, almost as if pressing one’s ear to the world.

The title may be inspired by “Solaris”, the famous sci-fi novel by Stanisław Lem (and its two film adaptations), though there is no anxiety here — only a mental landscape where one can enter on tiptoe.

A perfect soundtrack to accompany the delicate balance between nature and concrete, between silence and construction. Like a breath held at the edge, without disappearing.