The photographer Carlo Rocchi Bilancini has always had an affinity for the mysterious, transformative qualities of water. Yet, where his earlier focus was on individual character, here the photographer is concerned with memory and loss, two things that migrants always carry with them, regardless of their weight. In thirty-four hauntingly beautiful colour images, Bilancini explores what it means to leave something behind. In so doing, he references not only the historic migration of his fellow Italians to the United States but also the current plight of refugees to Europe and elsewhere. ‘I am inspired by the hardships faced by those who have been forced to leave their possessions and loved ones in order to undertake an arduous journey.’ In this work, water is the element in which one identity is dissolved and another begins to take shape.
