Liguria: Steep Streets

Everything goes uphill. Beach toys, people, scooters climbing stone lanes. Abandoned sandals on pebbles, a bee in white flowers, mirrors reflecting pastel walls. A couple at the bay where everything finally levels out. Liguria is a coast built on verticals — narrow streets climbing the hillside, pastel buildings stacked on top of each other, stone steps instead of sidewalks. The photography follows the terrain. Most of the set was shot walking uphill from the waterfront, stopping for whatever the lane offered: a man carrying beach toys past ornate balconies, a red scooter parked on cobblestones, a worn pair of sandals left on the pebble beach. The quieter frames are the best ones. A weathered stone sculpture of a woman's head, turned slightly, half-hidden by foliage — timeless and unexpected on a sunny afternoon. A bee working white trumpet flowers, caught sharp against a soft green backdrop. A motorcycle mirror reflecting a building facade in miniature. These are the frames that reward slow looking in a place designed for quick seaside tourism. The set widens out at the end with the rowers crossing a turquoise bay and a couple at the railing looking out at the terraced hillside town. Everything in color because the Ligurian palette — pastel ochre, seafoam green, that specific turquoise — is too specific and beautiful to abstract into monochrome. Fifteen frames from a day that started at the water and ended looking down at it from above. The walk was steep but the light was worth the climb. "That stone face felt completely at home amongst all the green, and getting the rowers to look up just as the sun hit the water… that was lucky."