Vittore Fossati's Decade-Long River Photography at Piacenza

A new exhibition in Piacenza presents Vittore Fossati's photographic series 'Il Tanaro a Masio' (2010-2018), capturing a 300-meter stretch of the Tanaro River near Masio, Italy. Fossati (born 1954 in Alessandria) shot the images over more than ten years during his daily commute, often early in the morning. The project explores the relationship between the finite viewpoint of the photographer and the infinite background, using what Fossati calls 'incidenti figurativi'—curious configurations that emerge from sustained dialogue with the landscape. The work references Luigi Ghirri, who in 1978 shared with Fossati a fondness for a Sabine Weiss photograph, and sociologist Georg Simmel's concept of landscape as a unified totality transcending individual elements. Fossati emphasizes listening to nature: initially noticing only large features, then gradually perceiving sounds like water on pebbles and footsteps, eventually experiencing the place as a whole. The exhibition invites viewers to decode the natural elements and reconstruct the geographical, biographical, and metaphorical journey, echoing Robert Adams's ideas on landscape photography.