The banks of the Milan Canal (Navigli) are especially famous for the animation that they welcome in the evening with the terraces of the cafes and crowded restaurants. During the day, the walk is quieter and the time is more conducive to dreaming that goes along the water. Some soft waves made the reflections dance in slow undulations. Since it is a reflection, I turned it 180° so that it would stand upright, if it could.

The windows and facades were transformed at every moment, defying the geometry of the buildings that had become unstable. The colors also, typically Italian, changed shades in the darker hollows.

Everything seemed to be liquefied in a surrealist picture where time, the only one responsible for the changes, modelled a still life that declined into abstraction. The presence of vegetable waste, bubbles and oil stains on the surface of the water accentuates the pictorial aspect of the composition.

The presence of complementary colors (green-red and yellow-blue) was also decisive for the selection of this small part of the landscape, with the descent of water in the middle which tries in vain to separate the scene into two equal parts. But in any case, the two halves are very unequal: the blue of the sky recalls that of the shutters in the right part which becomes more transparent, less severe than the left part.

Having no particular direction to highlight, the choice of the square format seemed quite obvious to me: the look goes from left to right, as if it were carried by an indolent roll at the time of the nap with closed shutters.

What do you think are the TWO most impactful features that make your image a good photograph? Don’t be shy!

Colours and graphism of the scene.

If you would be able to make this photo once again, what would be the ONE thing you would like to do better or different?

I would remove the floating plants.

Jean Frapoint shared this photograph in the FRAMES Facebook Group.

Photographer

Jean Frapoint, Nivelles, Belgium

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