Pio de Rose: Aquaria

The act of looking has always characterized the relationship between people and animals. However, recent studies have focused on the uniqueness of the environments where this mutual act of looking takes place and how they enhance evocative responses. I visited some of the world’s biggest aquariums to photograph the traces of their surreal settings portraying visitors’ “observing while being absorbed” by the blue surroundings accommodating their presence. In this extraordinary dimension, the lack of recognisable space and time coordinates generates isolated and transparent memories devoid of and in contrast with the chaos and paraphernalia characterizing aquariums as tourist attractions to retain the contemplative and emotional essence of the visit, which is turned into fragmented visions of a lucid dream.

Pio De Rose  is an Italian photographer currently based in Genoa. In 2011 he graduated in Photography and Visual Arts from the Libera Accademia di Belle Arti L.A.B.A. of Florence with the reportage Saints and Miracles. In 2012 he received his MA in Photojournalism from the University of Westminster with the project Aquaria, The Blue Glass Landscape. His work has been published and exhibited internationally. Recent publications and collaborations include Vanity Fair Italy, Io Donna, la Repubblica, mare – Die Zeitschrift der Meere, Æ Another Escape, WAZA Magazine, The Work Style Magazine, Clic.he Webmagazine, Mondo Sommerso – International Ocean Magazine, Tracce and others.