Marea (tide) contains images of the Veneto waterscapes and the leporello format aims to reproduce the oscillation between ebbing and flowing and the consequent shaping of the landscape and its perception.

The photographs reproduced in this book are scans of the original gelatin silver prints made by Nicola Cappellari and are accompanied by a geography of words, a sentimental map created in letterpress with period typefaces from the Tipoteca Italiana archive.


“Marea (in English “tide”) is project that is more about me than the places photographed; it is a map of my “distracted feelings”, the ones that come and go as they please.
Once I was on my friend’s inflatable boat and we encountered a boat that was surprised by the low tide. It would have taken them hours to refloat. The passengers greeted us with a smile and a glass of wine in one hand.
I remember thinking how important it is (occasionally) to be surprised by the tide.
I like the life that hides under a rock or behind a crack in the wall.
My photography style is spontaneous, unprepared, sometimes even rough; I always indulge in this feeling of incompleteness when I take a picture.
As a humanist, communicator and hopeless romantic, I believe in waiting. So I use film when I take photos because I (really) like waiting, imagining, almost shaking before seeing…”
- Nicola Cappellari