Shaped by the ocean

It all began with a unconditioned love for our planet, and a 1969 picture of my Grandfather.

“Are you serious?” That’s the question I was asked when I described my project to some of my friends. Gathering garbage from the beach in front of my apartment doesn’t sound like a great way to spend your free time and probably most of the people would not do that not even if they were getting payed. But to me, it’s like reading a book, made of many stories and many memories now abandon on the beach. You can find everything, for shoes, to vacuum to wine bottles and much more. The CNN states: “More than 170 trillion plastic particles found in the ocean as pollution reaches ‘unprecedented’ levels”. And here, my unconditioned love for the planet comes into picture. I cannot stand still looking at all this garbage sitting there on the beach, that’s why I started gathering all the rubbish and cleaned more 2kms and collecting 150kg in few weeks, while taking pictures of the most interesting pieces of trash and documenting everything with my action cam - at the bottom of the page you will find a link to my YT.

And then we have the 1969 picture, of my Grandfather Pietro standing on the same beach in front of my apartment in the middle of a sunny day in August. What struck me the most was the clean white beach, the blue water and the fact that my granpa was wearing a long sleeves shirt. 54 years after this seems a completely different world. As of today, the beach is mostly a dump for 9 months a year, and the other 3 months during summer is usually cleaned - the local government spends lots of money to clean it making sure tourists will not be welcomed by trash all around. The water is getting hotter year by year, which results in more jellyfish and seaweeds and the extreme heat during summer is becoming unbearable, in July 2023 we had an average temperature of 38 degrees.

“Shaped by the ocean” is a project that focuses on raising awareness on the effects of ocean pollution showing how nature, through sea currents and corrosion, shaped the garbage left on the beach. I used the photography to immortalise these unique pieces of trash before throwing them away, giving them an incredible value. These photographies are unique, as unique is the way the Nature shaped these pieces of trash over the days, months and years.

Shaped by the ocean

Shoe Sole
The Vacuum
The Broom
The Starbucks Cup
The Toothbrush
Ice Pack
The Inhaler

Many are the reasons why these pieces of trash are on the beach but each piece is unique in its own way… shaped by nature over the time….

The Straw
The Toothpaste
The Little Flip Flop
The Little Slipper
The Legs
The Cigarette butts
Coca Cola

A single box of polystyrene, when it ends up in the sea and falls apart, can produce over a million microplastics, which then enter the food chains of fish and therefore also of humans.

The Polystyrene
The Sole
Septona baby
Great Taste Cap
HEINZ 57
The Invisible Bottle
Ketchup
The Doll
The Brush

In the last ten years, we have produced more plastic products than in the previous century.

Kinder Surprise
The Shower
The Super Water Gun

Sooner or later, the sea gives us back everything we have throw away.

Ghost
Rusted Gilette Bottle
Pink Helmet
Copenhagen tobacco
BAR Lighter
The Wine Bottle

The right shoe of a kid, shaped by the ocean.

I hope that these photos become a symbol of the drama that our seas are experiencing but that they are also a message of hope. If we all do our part, by polluting less and holding cleanup events, we can reduce and eliminate this trend.

Below you can watch the “Shaped by the ocean” YouTube series.