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BETWEEN SEA AND SKY
July 9, 2026
BOOK
PHOTOGRAPHY Massimo Lupidi
TEXT Massimo Lupidi
INTRODUCTION Melanie Meggs
Massimo Lupidi has spent more than three decades working with photography as a way of studying landscape and human presence. A self-taught photographer based in Italy, his practice moves across aerial photography, environmental observation, and fine art. His work often asks how a place changes when seen from a different position, and how distance can reveal what the eye misses at ground level.
In CINQUE TERRE, tra cielo e mare / between sky and sea, Massimo turns to the Ligurian coast and its five villages of Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. Yet it does not treat them as scenic destinations. It returns to the older meaning of “lands.” These villages were shaped by geography, by isolation, by labour, and by the difficulty of living between steep terrain and open water. In Massimo’s photographs, the Cinque Terre are seen as places held in tension. They are suspended between sky and sea, beauty and work, poetry and survival.
Massimo approaches the landscape through movement. He walks its paths and flies above it by paraglider, allowing the body and the air to become part of the photographic process. The aerial perspective does not distance the viewer from the land. Instead, it reveals how fragile and constructed the landscape is. From above, the coast becomes less like a postcard and more like evidence of endurance. The view is expansive, but it remains intimate.
Massimo Lupidi’s CINQUE TERRE is a landscape seen through affection, but also through discipline. He understands that to love a place is not only to admire it. It is to return to it with attention, to read its surfaces, and to recognise the histories held inside them.
Along the path leading to Mesco, I smell the scent of citrus fruits and Mediterranean scrub, among broom, wild euphorbia, rockrose, heather, and maritime pines. An intense variety of colors, where, sheltered among the rocks, vines, vegetables, and olive trees grow. A light breeze perfumes the air in five villages called Cinque Terre, along the Ligurian coast of Levante, a few kilometers from La Spezia.
...But why Cinque Terre? Why did these five villages
refer to themselves as ‘lands’?
Because they were almost like islands, autonomous
places shaped by the landscape and geography.
Lands that had to fend for themselves. To understand
this, however, we need to take a step back in
time and open our eyes and hearts to perceive
something that nowadays escapes the hordes of
tourists who arrive daily.
We mentioned five islands perched along slopes
that drop more or less vertically into the sea. The sea
provides sustenance. Steep terrain to be shaped.
Five villages united by hard and laborious lives...
At every bend in the road, I am struck by the enchantment of this landscape and its breathtaking views. Rocky spurs stand out clearly, almost touching the sky and the sea, and separating the earth from the land. I fly over the coast, passing paths hidden by olive and maritime pine trees, Mediterranean scrub, inlets and rocks, and the emerald sea below. This is the magic of the Gulf of Poets. I walk and fly to discover new horizons, to observe and document with both body and mind. For me, photography must represent a ‘meeting place’, an object of contemplation and a means of communication that enables us to have a direct experience and encourages us to recognize the brilliance of our own perception.
It was a magical encounter with the Cinque Terre that convinced me, after a long time, to create a book dedicated to this wonderful corner of Italy. You cannot write a book about the Cinque Terre without loving it. But loving it means abandoning yourself to new experiences and ideas in order to truly appreciate these places. In this case, the choice of paragliding coincidentally offered me unusual and particularly effective viewpoints. The journey did not stop there, though. Along the ‘Path of Infinity’, I discovered the villages of Fossola, Monesteroli and Campiglia, as well as the slopes of Capo Mesco, which are suspended between sky and sea. By publishing a book on the Cinque Terre, I have now established an unbreakable bond with this wonderful place.
The land here, however, tends to foster close relationships between poetry and nature, and between nature and humanity.
“Rough and essence soul”
Eugenio Montale defines the landscape of the Cinque Terre. My book shows a close relationship between poetry and nature, where photography also shows the artist's own bond with the landscape, the source of inspiration for his most famous operas such as those included in the collection Sepia Bones.
Cristina Currarini, guide for nature and the Eugenio Montale literature tours in Cinque Terre Literary Park, in her own book preface writes:
“I had the opportunity to get to know Massimo and …I was able to sense his deep love for and intimate connection with our landscape...
In particular, I was struck by his overwhelming enthusiasm at finally experiencing, through Montale's writings and verses, those sensations that his photographer's eyes had captured in photographic prints over the seasons and years, as we walked along symbolic paths and places.
His prolonged and continuous visits to Monterosso and the Riviera di Levante are evident in his decision to depict lesser-known views and unexpected perspectives. This enabled the artist to capture ever-changing moments and instants that convey the taste of salt on the skin, the sounds of the elements, the dazzling sun, the lashing winds, the imposing verticality and the immensity of the sea, together with the colours and contrasts of such a harsh and fragile territory…”
and Patrizia Pittaluga, freelance designer, painter and conservator, in her introduction too:
“…why Cinque Terre? Why did these five villages refer to themselves as ‘lands’? Because they were almost like islands, autonomous places shaped by the landscape and geography. Lands that had to fend for themselves. To understand this, however, we need to take a step back in time and open our eyes and hearts to perceive something that nowadays escapes the hordes of tourists who arrive daily.
We mentioned five islands perched along slopes that drop more or less vertically into the sea. The sea provides sustenance. Steep terrain to be shaped. Five villages united by hard and laborious lives.
Massimo’s photographs highlight the architecture of these places, created by humans and nature alike...”
CINQUE TERRE / between sky and sea is a book to spend time with. Massimo Lupidi offers more than a view of the Ligurian coast. He gives us a new and inspirational way of seeing it. For those who know Cinque Terre, the book opens the landscape again. For those who do not, it offers an encounter beyond the postcard image. This is for anyone drawn to photography and the fragile relationship between land and human presence. To hold the book is to enter Massimo’s bond with Cinque Terre, and to see why this landscape continues to demand attention.
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The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author/s, and are not necessarily shared by The Pictorial List and the team.
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