This research stems from an interpretive approach to the text and imagery of Ossi di seppia (1925), a landmark of twentieth-century European poetry, by the Italian poet Eugenio Montale, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1975. The series explores both natural and human-altered landscapes across selected locations in Liguria that echo, visually or geographically, the places evoked in the poet’s verse. The aim is to interpret the landscape archetypes that run through Montale’s work, drawing on his lexicon, rhetorical figures, and prosody in order to elicit sensations and moods that reflect his poetic intentions.

The project focuses on sparse, arid and marginal landscapes—places where elements of restrained, fleeting beauty, as in Ossi di seppia, suggest a return to life. The photographs aspire to deconstruct stereotypes associated with the Ligurian imagery through a precise selection of subjects, the introduction of disrupting contemporary elements, and a spare, unmediated approach to composition.

The depiction of landscapes of Ossi di seppia is so intimately personal that place names are almost entirely absent, dissolving geography into a universal dimension. In a similar way, these images present a fragmented, non-descriptive view of places, deliberately withholding any identifiable points of reference.

This is not a documentary study of landscape, but rather an attempt to synthesise its constituent elements. Rather than a documentary study of landscape, this work attempts to synthesise its constituent elements. The work also engages with the sense of impassivity to which Montale aspires – a form of detachment that is not indifference, but a space for reflection upon the world’s dissonance.

In this sense, the sequence deliberately assumes an anti-narrative, disharmonic approach, drawing on the musical dissonances of Claude Debussy to translate visually the tension between balance and fracture. Like the poems, the images do not seek to resolve or reassure, but hold the complexity in view.

Co-produced by Fondazione Arnoldo e Alberto Mondadori, Genova Palazzo Ducale and Electa, with the support of Strategia Fotografia 2024 grant, promoted by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Culture.

Exhibited at Palazzo Ducale, Genoa, Italy in 2025.

Curated by Ilaria Bonacossa, Paolo Verri with Michela Murialdo

Published in Meriggiare pallido e assorto. Eugenio Montale: 100 immagini per i 100 anni di Ossi di seppia, a book edited by Ilaria Bonacossa and Paolo Verri, with essays by Elio Grazioli, Marcello Ciccuto. Electa, 2025.