The Past That... Lasts

Description

This is a photo I shot instinctively, with my mobile phone (the only "photographic" equipment I had with me in that moment).

These two large quay cranes, by now abandoned since decades, are located in the only commercial corner left in the small harbour of Oneglia, in Imperia, Italy (everything else has already been converted, as well as for fishing, to satisfy far more profitable "tourist" purposes) and remain still, as spectral witnesses of a time that no longer exists, but strong pressure from the former harbour workers (nicknamed "camalli"^(*) in the Ligurian dialect) prevent both their exploitation for other purposes (they cry: "Sacrilege!") and their removal, even if they are now becoming dangerous, abandoned in the saltiness without any kind of maintenance.

^(*) the term "camalli" in the sense of 'bearers' comes straightly from the Arabic "Kamal" (camel): an evidence of the centuries-old relationship between these two peoples, whose destinies in the past were both linked to the Mediterranean Sea, albeit from opposite shores

I shot them because from where I was the two cranes, seen from below, looked like two huge looming mechanical birds, while the clouds behind them made the background interesting and the small white pilot boat gave the idea of harbour activities. Later I enhanced the image drama converting it to B/W and increasing the contrast. I think that the sky itself, with the circular movement of the clouds opposed to the straight lines of the two huge metal skeletons, gives an intense touch to the whole image.

Even if I did it instinctively, in my opinion the monochromatic frame, which I added in the postprocessing phase, contributes to the image tone, deliberately gloomy.

Technical Data