SOLASTALGIA

English with Italian translation

The fragile foundations of Venice are slowly being eroded by rising tides, subsidence and pollution - undergoing a brutal transformation that threatens irreversible change to this widely beloved city. Illustrated with degraded images from films submerged in Adriatic seawater, this photo/text docufiction unravels a narrative in which the lagoon city poignantly chronicles its own disappearance.

Combining fictitious storytelling and poetic photography, Solastalgia sheds light on an increasingly urgent environmental issue affecting the archipelago of 118 islands that make up the city of Venice, Italy.

Venice is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the European city most under threat from the impact of climate change. Its buildings and fragile foundations are progressively eroded by rising global sea-levels, land subsidence, frequent high tides, and maritime pollution caused by hulking cruise ships. In the past hundred years the water level has risen by nearly 30cm (12in) - sparking 'extreme concern' from the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in 2016.

Written in the voice of Venice - a city deserted by its inhabitants and sinking gradually into oblivion - this emotive book recalls its former life of grandeur and speculates on the outcome of its worsening predicament. Photographs are made from film negatives that lay soaking for weeks in the same Adriatic seawater that is actively deteriorating and swallowing the city.