Informals Bathing linearity

Abstract

The ‘seafront linearity’ forms an indefinite, densely built-up space, as the edge of adjacent historical towns and centre of new conurbations. This is how it appears, as a form of landscape unto itself. An analysis of the layouts of the seaside towns - the few planned ones and the many spontaneous ones – leads to a series of considerations on how, in nearly the same settlement conditions, the most varied urban solutions have been reached, making the different stretches recognisable upon closer examination (fig.1).
This is above all a synthesis of a very long photographic project which followed the line of Italy’s seaside towns for over twenty years, in the intent to grasp their significance for our times as well as the distinctive features of the single places passed through. Looking from the sea towards the urbanised frontline and from this towards the blue horizon, from Trieste to Pescara, with some gaps along the way, to other stretches of the Mediterranean.
A series of images of the most varied Italian seaside scenes from along the coast, comprising components that, while similar, nevertheless always differ. They show how the coastal landscape has adapted to transform into a seaside city, in all its possible forms. The photographs of various places visited over a period of time also grasp the slow and continual change resulting from the resistance to permanence typical of these shifting landscapes. Hence they also bear witness to the changes underway in Italian seaside culture.