The spirit of TERRAE 

Wine-making and photography share much more than one might imagine: both require time, attention and sensitivity. They require an eye and intuition, but also rigour, technique and the ability to capture the essence of what is in front of you. In both cases, the end result is a form of art: an authentic expression of an identity, a territory, a vision.

Jacques Pion, a French photographer trained at the École Nationale Louis Lumière in Paris, has been able to discern the differences between a Piedmontese hill and a Friulian terrace, between the intensity of the Mediterranean on the Tuscan coast and the sober elegance of Valpantena, capturing the soul of each estate in every shot. He did so with a unified, stylistically cohesive vision, capable of paying homage to diversity without dispersing its meaning.

Every shot is a composition, just as every wine is an expression of the place that produces it. In this work, the photographer becomes a winemaker of images: he chooses what to expose, what to leave in the shadows, when to stop time. And as in great blends, where different varieties find harmony while retaining their nuances, so too in this visual narrative differences coexist, enhanced by a consistent and recognisable gaze.

The decision to combine analogue view cameras with digital technology in photographic work is not just a stylistic statement, but a cultural message: tradition is not nostalgia, but a foundation. Innovation, in turn, is not a break, but an evolution. Art, in this context, becomes the tool for recounting the indissoluble link between these two souls.

Texts by Igor Boccardo, Chief Executive Officer of Leone Alato