THE TALE IN WHICH THE PAST, THE PRESENT AND THE FUTURE HAVE ALL BECOME ONE
ADVENTURE PHOTOSHOOT ON LAKE COMO
‘Let There Be Light’
PROLOGUE, OR THE FIRST PERIOD OF AWARENESS
Along the Lakeshore
Where, as the story begins, light and water,
sources of life, shine together,
leading to a deeper perception of the Beautiful in Creation.
SECOND PERIOD, CALLED THE VICTORY OVER THE PASSING OF TIME
At the Church of St Thomas of Canterbury
In which even the distance between the Epochs is cancelled in visible matter.
THIRD PERIOD, OF SINCERE LOVE
At the Gate of the Walls
Where love is a deliberate choice. Far from passing sentiment, this choice becomes the measure for creating, through art, both the Beautiful and the Sublime.
THE EVOCATION, BEING THE FOURTH PERIOD
Along the Path of the Wayfarer
In which visual representation is guided by a kind of epical inspiration, inquiring into the origin of our idea of the Beautiful.
FIFTH PERIOD, OR THE TRANSFIGURATION
At the Tombs of the Lords
In which death, commonly held to be the bearer of sorrow, is defeated by the Sublime and by all Those who opened a passage to Life.
SIXTH AND LAST PERIOD, OR COMPLETENESS
At the Blue Door, then by the Waters
In which everything around produces Blessedness.
From the waters that flow here, having revealed itself to you, the Tale can move on towards new narratives.
Have you noticed the Blue Door? It has a letterbox, now: as in days gone by, news will come by letter.
Far from the clangour of tourists on Lake Como, you can discover an ancient village named after Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, Roman magistrate, lawyer and writer, better known as Plinio il Giovane, Pliny the Younger.
According to local tradition, two thousand years ago he owned a villa here.
Although it largely clings to a cliff face, Corenno Plinio follows the Roman street plan: the Decumanus is today’s Via G. Candiani, and the Cardo is Via di Mezzo.
The main square, beside the church, was once the forum, with its temple and marketplace.
Some of the paths that lead down to the lake are steep flights of steps carved into the rock.
In the past they could be closed off by large gates, which protected the inhabitants at night from animals and from raiders coming from the water.
To complete the village’s defences, the Statutes of 1389 describe a water-filled moat where the provincial road now runs.
His uncle and namesake, Gaius Plinius Secundus (Como, AD 23/24 – Stabiae, AD 79, during the famous eruption of Vesuvius), known as Plinio il Vecchio, Pliny the Elder, knew these shores well: among the wonders of nature he records a spring beside the lake that rises and falls at regular intervals, which the younger Pliny would later describe in one of his letters.
In his will he adopted his nephew.
Plinio il Vecchio was an author, naturalist and natural philosopher, a naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire and a friend of the emperor Vespasian.
His Naturalis Historia (Natural History) became the model for the encyclopaedias of the centuries to come.
But what matters most for our couple photoshoots today is his account of how the visual arts began:
‘It all began when a young woman traced on the wall the outline of the shadow cast by her beloved’s face’.
Don’t you think it’s incredibly wonderful and… ‘romantic’?
From this story, through photography, I created a little fairy tale divided into six Periods, like the days of Creation.
My muse was my fellow photographer Susy Zuppati (Instagram: @_capellidibrace_), with her partner Daniel Ritota (Instagram: @spanielenjoint).
Greta Zanotto (Instagram: @greta_zanotto and @vintageshop_italia), mother of three, is a fashion stylist, model and photographer, and runs an online vintage clothing shop. The couple’s outfits come from her collection.
The image of Corenno Plinio from the water was taken with the invaluable help of Cristian Fumagalli, owner of the Bellagio Charter (Instagram: @bellagiocharter) boat company.
Now ends our tale, but time is a transitory phenomenon in our eternal lives, and the word ‘end’ can also mean ‘beginning’ or ‘a brand-new beginning’.
How much do human feelings truly count, when they are guided by fleeting emotions before the mystery of life and of Creation?
We can call this sequence ‘a day’, not considering it the end but the next beginning.
‘Let There Be Light’, say – in my case – the fireflies.
THE END
ADVENTURE PHOTOSHOOTS
How to book
An adventure photoshoot is conceived differently from any other.
It is a real adventure: the intimate discovery of one or more places around Lake Como, where the two of you are the ‘heroes’, the protagonists of a tale that can turn into a ‘fairy’ one.
The story you see here is almost a historical re-enactment, but together we can design an elopement, or a story with a completely different concept: inspired more by the nature of the setting than by its history, or by a tradition that the lake itself preserves.
The investment starts at €2,270: this is the minimum, and the final figure grows with the complexity of the project. A fine art sequence of coordinated images usually takes two half days, so that we can move along the lake at leisure, but it depends on the kind of project. You will find every detail in the investment guide of my Lake Como Photoshoot Guide.
Write to me using the form at the bottom of this page, and tell me you are interested in an ‘adventure photoshoot’.
An adventure photoshoot is conceived differently from any other.
It is a real adventure: the intimate discovery of one or more places around Lake Como, where the two of you are the ‘heroes’, the protagonists of a tale that can turn into a ‘fairy’ one.
The story you see here is almost a historical re-enactment, but together we can design an elopement, or a story with a completely different concept: inspired more by the nature of the setting than by its history, or by a tradition that the lake itself preserves.
The investment starts at €2,270: this is the minimum, and the final figure grows with the complexity of the project. A fine art sequence of coordinated images usually takes two half days, so that we can move along the lake at leisure, but it depends on the kind of project. You will find every detail in the investment guide of my Lake Como Photoshoot Guide.
Write to me using the form at the bottom of this page, and tell me you are interested in an ‘adventure photoshoot’.
LAKE COMO IN BLACK AND WHITE?
Post-production and delivery of the edited work
No worries: every image I deliver is carefully post-produced and comes in two versions, colour and black and white.
