Sara Barbin
Beginning, photography, July 2025.
Density , photography, August 2025.
Movement , photography, August 2025.
STATEMENT
The Sea forces us to breathe again” – Sara Barbin
This triptych explores the sea’s inherent vibrancy through three distinct photographic moments that capture the Adriatic’s dynamic energy and emotional resonance. Each image reveals how this marine environment pulses with life, colour, and movement, challenging the common perception of water as a passive element, like a breathing entity.
The first photograph embraces the quiet awakening of dawn, where vibrancy whispers rather than shouts. Gentle pastels bleed across the horizon as the emerging sun kisses the water’s surface, creating a palette of muted rose and amber. Here, vibrancy reveals itself through subtlety – in the soft gradations of light and the gentle.
The second image intensifies the visual journey with dynamic greens and blues colliding in restless motion. Here, the sea abandons subtlety for bold declaration, as waves surge and foam with urgent yet calm energy. The interplay of emerald depths and sapphire crests creates a vibrant subtle tension, capturing the water’s reflections like they were brushstrokes.
The final photograph embraces darkness as a canvas for movement, where deep blue tones dominate the frame. Against the moody palette, the water’s motion becomes more intense and defined.
Together, these images tell us that the sea’s vibrancy lies in the quiet magnificence of everyday encounters with water, light, and time. The Adriatic’s true energy emerges when we pause to witness its constant, subtle transformations.
Some of contrast and saturation were used to underline the dramatic impact of colours and waves, to make them resemble a painting.
This series invites viewers to reconsider their relationship with loneliness and anxiety, when we choke and are out of breath. The sea is not just a backdrop but protagonist – a living, breathing entity whose vibrancy mirrors our own capacity for wonder and renewal, capable of healing the soul and forcing us to breathe again.
Sara Barbin @empress_drawings