Alessandro Puccinelli Italy, b. 1969
"The sea is the unknown, that which can never be fully understood. It carries life, it carries the beginning of everything, it carries beauty. The sea, however, is also feared, for her power, her endlessness. The sea is free, no one can say ‘you are mine’." - Alessandro Puccinelli
The ocean, for Puccinelli, is more than a landscape—it’s a mirror of memory, longing, and internal transformation. His work draws conceptual links between the Romantic tradition and contemporary concerns, blending natural beauty with existential unease. Though recent explorations have included color photography, Mare remains an almost entirely monochrome meditation on nature’s power. Other series like Furore, Identity Disruption, and Plastic Galaxy extend this core narrative, using experimental approaches to dissect human relationships with the ocean. Puccinelli’s practice ultimately speaks to the sublime force of nature and its deep resonance within the human psyche.
Alessandro Puccinelli (b. 1969, Pisa) is an artists who works exclusively with
photography as his medium. His journey began by assisting commercial photographers,
eventually establishing himself as an independent professional before discovering
photography as a profound form of self-expression. Over the years, Puccinelli has lived
and worked in various locations, including Marina di Pisa, Brisbane, Lisbon, Alentejo
region—each deepening his connection to the sea, a central theme of his artistic practice.
His long-term photographic series, Mare, regarded by the artist as the cornerstone of his
work, began in year 2005. The series captures the sea in all its grandeur and
contradictions—its powerful swells, storms, repetitions, shorelines, and the debris it
gathers and returns. Mare explores the infinite wonder of the sea but also the symbolic
use of nature for reflecting inner human experiences. Puccinelli’s bond with water and
waves spans formative life moments, from childhood memories to learning to surf, to
walking along its shores, living beside it, and later longing to reconnect through surfing.
For Puccinelli, the sea is a place where intimacy, refuge, dramatic intensity, and profound
realizations converge. His stark black-and-white photography freezes fleeting moments of the seas perpetual motion.
In many ways, his photographs draw a parallel between the sea’s supernatural qualities
and the turbulence of the human psyche. In this sense, his practice is rooted in personal
experiences, much like the Romantic painters of the 18th century, whose work also
sought to express the sublime and the emotional power of nature. Yet, Puccinelli's
photography blends not only the enduring themes of nature with a sharp sensitivity, but
also the challenges and anxieties of our contemporary world. In recent years, his
photography feels like transitioning from black-and-white to experimenting more with
color. Yet, Mare remains black and white. While Mare remains Puccinelli’s central series, other projects like Furore, Identity Disruption, and Plastic Galaxy act as extensions or explorations of this foundational theme, diving deeper into specific aspects of the ocean through experimental techniques.