"Our land has been abused by the iron plough and overpowered by man who seeks his living from it, and who, without realising it, furrows his own wrinkles and hopes in it."
– Mario Giacomelli, handwritten notes, 1990s (Courtesy of the Mario Giacomelli Archives)

Giacomelli’s landscapes were often photographed from hilltops, where he sought signs and markings deeply inscribed in the land. In the darkroom, he used contrast and over-exposure to create rich black areas, abstracting and decontextualizing the scenes, imbuing them with a cosmic grandeur. This series includes images of the square farmhouse on the hilltop at Vallone (a province of Senigallia), captured across seasons, years, and stages of cultivation. Between 1955 and 1968, he primarily photographed the hills of Arcevia and Sant’Angelo. From 1960 to 1980, his focus shifted to the hills at Montelago and Vallone.

Giacomelli’s exploration of the central-northern zone of Le Marche covered a compact area of about fifty square kilometers. He retraced two routes within this region: one inland from the Adriatic coast, spanning Senigallia to Arcevia and its offshoots, the other following the coastline from Falconara to Torrette di Fano. For Giacomelli, these specific places were more than photographic subjects—they were "pretexts" for entering the landscape. Through this geographical and existential journey, he accessed the depths of the land and his inner world.

(Adapted from Katiuscia Biondi text)