The exhibition, titled Fragments of seaside holidays, hides behind the apparent simplicity of its name an immersion in the silent song of the human condition
A meditation on the passage of time, imbued with melancholy and expressed through the powerful language of black and white images. The exhibition by Giancarlo Ballo, on view at Galleria Turelli in Montecatini Terme from September 16th to 30th, hides behind the seemingly simple title “Fragments of seaside holidays — Frammenti di vacanze al mare” not a vacation diary, but rather the silent song of the human condition.
Under the visitors’ gaze, solitary figures appear, carved into the photographic negative like uneasy souls in quiet settings. The beaches and vast landscapes Ballo captures are not places of leisure, but inner landscapes: uninhabited, suspended, immersed in a dreamlike vision where the boundaries between reality and perception dissolve. In this rarefied space, the infinity of the sea dialogues with the limits and fragility of the human spirit.
A meditation on the passage of time, infused with melancholy and rendered through the powerful language of black and white images
Each photograph becomes a mirror of solitude, imbued with a subtle and unsettling atmosphere, where the unknown looms, ready to alter the state of things. With the language of shadows, Ballo constructs visual narratives charged with emotional tension: here, the holiday is not rest and comfort, but a lost illusion. There is no surrender, but waiting. No noise, but suspension. The figures portrayed stand like light shadows walking along the edge of the horizon, embodying an unconventional sense of emotional states: not euphoria, but hesitation; not presence, but evanescence.
In one of the most emblematic images, a solitary figure watches the sea from behind a fence, as if searching for an answer, or a surrender in that vastness.
Before our eyes, isolated figures align, sculpted into the photographic negative like restless souls set against silent backdrops
The narrative power of black and white finds in Ballo a rare interpreter. Each nuance expresses what color often conceals. His technique is chiselled with surgical precision. Nothing is left to chance: the composition is essential, the light is sculpture, and emptiness becomes the protagonist.
Giancarlo Ballo, a forensic doctor by profession and a photographer by soul’s necessity, became “afflicted” with photography at the age of 18. His constant pursuit is that of a fleeting emotion, of a moment on the verge of vanishing. His photographs, crafted with discipline and sensitivity, move between geometry and transparency, between reflections and fades. His fragments of seaside holidays are a subtle yet powerful invitation to reflect and to contemplate the invisible.
The narrative strength of black and white finds in this artist a rare interpreter. Every shade tells a story that color often leaves untold
