At the extreme point of the right-hand promontory, on a bank of rocks the Trabocco stretched, a strange fishing machine, constructed entirely of beams and planks, like a colossal spider. The great fishing machine—that composed of trunks freed from their bark, planks and cables, whose strange whiteness resembled the colossal skeleton of some antediluvian amphibian. that great, whitish framework, stretched along on the rocks … that bristling and treacherous form, continually lying in ambush, seemed to deny the benignity of the solitude. At the burning and motionless noon-times, at the misty twilights, it often took on formidable aspects. The long and obstinate struggle against the fury and treacherousness of the waves was as if written on this enormous carcass by means of these knots, these nails, this machinery. The
machine seemed to have a life of its own, to have the air and figure of an animated body.
Gabriele D’Annunzio, The Triumph of Death
The trabocco, distinctive element of the homonymous coast, represents an ancient and unique engineering work, a fishing machine that dominates the horizon, whose shape blends perfectly with the surrounding landscape. My black and white photographs aim to capture the essence of these works of art of fishing, reproducing their beauty and majesty, as well as their millenary history. Each photograph will reveal the indomitable character of the sea, its strength and unpredictability, and a reflection on the beauty of nature and culture, as a testimony of how humans have been able to adapt to the surrounding landscape to draw the most from its generosity.
