In Marcello, Pietro Motisi captures a moment of quiet absurdity and poetic tension within a landscape of abandonment. A barefoot figure—half-playful, half-concentrated—balances atop a low stone wall, framed by the skeletal architecture of an unfinished or deserted housing complex. The scene feels both intimate and symbolic, suggesting themes of stasis, exploration, and the fragile balance between human presence and architectural decay.
Shot with a large format camera on Kodak Portra film, the photograph carries a soft palette and immersive detail. The man’s colorful swimwear and spontaneous pose contrast with the mute geometry of the concrete shells behind him, injecting a subtle humor into an otherwise charged space.
Marcello is less about portraiture and more about place, gesture, and the strange choreography of bodies within broken landscapes. It asks: What do we do in ruins—not metaphorical ones, but real, sun-bleached structures left behind?