«If we are always arriving and departing, it is also true that we are eternally anchored. One’s destination is never a place but rather a new way of looking at things. » Henry Miller

Community Of Male Bathers

Lanterna “Beach” is a long-term project (2015-2022) that documents a community of male bathers in a town in Southern Italy, where I was born and raised, before leaving my country. The work explores the relationship between this peculiar community and the nature of the Pier where they sunbathe and rendezvous from Summer to Winter. Over the years, in a perpetual process that still goes on nowadays, they have organically adjusted and adapted this space to their needs.

Marianio Doronzo

ILFORD DELTA 400 @200

Sun Worshipers

The space is predominantly attended by men. Some of them meet here to relax and forget about family responsibilities or social pressure, and others like to enjoy their breaks from the daily routine in the playfulness of the sunshine. A very important ritual, especially, for sun worshippers, as some of them plan their work schedule to coincide with cloudy or rainy forecasts so as to not miss a single sunny day.

Marianio Doronzo

ILFORD DELTA 400 @200

Sense of belonging to the place I escaped

I’ve been now photographing the Lanterna and the bathers for the last seven years – and I still do – but I cannot really explain why I do it. It has become a sort of addiction and on the whole has more to do with reconnecting with “home” than with photography. Through portraits, tattoos and anatomical shapes, one of my main aims is to build a visual map – a metaphorical gate – to reconcile with my original culture and therefore to rediscover, under a different positive new light, everything I left behind such as customs and traditions, local dialect expressions, childhood memories and a new sense of belonging to the place I escaped.

Blending into the community

It took me a couple of years before I found the very aesthetic I was looking for. Originally, the first few times I approached this place, I was shooting on 35mm film. Soon, I switched to 120 medium format as I wanted to give this project a look that resembled the one of some fashion shootings. Another reason for using this format was dictated by the camera: an old Rolleiflex – with a very quiet shutter and a waist-level viewfinder – which allowed me to blend in this community without disturbing the relaxed mood: I wouldn’t be able to do so if I had to raised the camera to eye-level.

Using an analogue camera with film also helped me a lot in building trust with my subjects. They could tell I was really passionate about what I was doing and made them feel special and somehow an active part in the creative process.

Marianio Doronzo

ILFORD DELTA 400 @200

Marianio Doronzo

ILFORD DELTA 400 @200

The black and white choice

The black and white choice was essential to get that timeless feeling and to emphasize body shapes against the white stone. I tried different ILFORD films (the most reliable brand in my opinion) and found that the best options for this project were the Delta 100 and Delta 400 processed with Ilfotec DD-X developer. To compensate the Apulian harsh light and get the best result I usually went for a stop (-1) pull on both films. So, I would give the film more light and make up for it with a shorted development time to reduce the density of the highlights and get a less contrasted negative.

Marianio Doronzo

ILFORD DELTA 400 @200

I fell in love

In 2021, when this project was selected for a Magnum Photos long-term mentorship, I decided the next step was to make good quality prints. ILFORD Multigrade Fibre Based Paper met my expectations. After testing different tones with all the available kind of surfaces, I found that the Classic Matt FB was the right paper to convey the summery feeling I experienced while shooting this project. I fell in love with its slightly washed out and sun-bleached look that reminded me of the dry sea salt on the skin after a day spent on the beach.

Images - ©Mariano Doronzo