The sea line

Nicola Ughi (1972) has always been a photographer, lover, and researcher of the "sea line", in his shots the horizon rises and cuts the perspective in half.

His photographic project begins from the coast of Tuscany to reach the whole mediterranean shores.

The universe of water, light and sand that he captures, sometimes devoid of human figures and sometimes with a few people who magically move on the horizon line, carries within it a vocation for painting that has ancient and historical roots in photography, just think of Edward Steichen and his "The Pond-Moonlight" of 1904 in which he captures a moonlight on a lake and where the horizon is very high. In this masterful full moon, the reflection shapes the photo. In this regard, one cannot fail to consider the pioneer of photography Gustave Le Grai, who was the first to put together in "post-production" two plates of the same shot but with two different exposures (one for the sky and one for the sea).

The inspiration, to the photographic eye of Nicola Ughi in the creation of his coasts, comes directly from painting, as occurred for Steichen who was a painter even before being a photographer. To our Tuscan, the paintings dedicated to the coast of Antignano or Viareggio by Renato Natali (Livorno 1883 - 1979) emerge before his eyes and in his memory. Other references for Ughi's photos are the painter Giovanni March (Tunis 1894 - Livorno 1974) with his marinas, Giovanni Lomi (Livorno 1889 - 1969) with his beaches and cliffs immersed and emanating a silvery or rosy light that thrives on continuous mirrors; the great Moses Levy (Tunis 1885 – Viareggio 1968).

An important source of reflection and stimulus to the dreamlike and surreal shot for his visions between sky and sea linked to the ravines, small bays, fishermen's boats swinging on the sea surface reaches the Photographer from the luminous suggestions of Elba by Llewelyn Lloyd.

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From these premises the project takes its cue, which aims to give life to the sea voyage from the Tuscan mainland to the whole Mediterranean:

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From the tuscan coast, as the navigators made since Etruscan age; the travel can begin and end visiting a lot of shores and shoot from them to the sea line, completing the story through images as if it were an ideal perimeter.

From the land to the islands suspended between sky and sea, places of beauty and utopia, far and near, where nature and art coexist harmoniously, a new frontier for responsible and cultured people, respectful of marine and terrestrial beauties: a visitor willing to immerse himself in the contemplation experienced by the ancient monks who chose them as places of peace and meditation, but also available for leisure respectful of the place of delights such as the ancient Romans knew, who knew how to build heaven on earth with their villas.

The photographer has a clear and sharp idea of the of "sea lines" coming from his visual memory alongside the "Marines" of Elba by Llewelyn Lloyd, along the coasts by Renato Natali, Giovanni March, Giovanni Lomi, Gino Romiti, Moses Levy and others belonging to the current of the Postmacchiaioli and to the well-known Gruppo Labronico, who within this movement revealed a passionate bond with the city of Livorno, where he had seen its rise and which Romiti had been president from 1943 to 1967.

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A magical aura appears as a powerful suggestion, and outlines landscapes and people, permeating everything with a magical and dreamlike impressionism.

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Curated by Giuseppe Ussani d'Escobar