Acqua Alta — Ralph Vitolo
Projects / Series Four / Acqua Alta
[ Series Four — Venice, Water, 2022 ]

Acqua
alta

04
45.4408° N · 12.3155° E

San Marco Waterfront, Venice — Autumn 2022

A city half water.

The Concept

Venice at the moment the lagoon reclaims the piazza.

The gondolas moored, poles standing in risen water, San Giorgio Maggiore blurred through a yellow-grey sky. There is no catastrophe here — only the slow seasonal return of water to a city that was always half water.

Acqua alta is not an emergency for Venice; it is a rhythm the city has learned to inhabit. This series follows that rhythm across a single autumn — the walkways raised, the shopkeepers unhurried, the tourists photographing what residents have stopped noticing. Water is not the subject. Acceptance is.

Acqua Alta — Venice lagoon, gondolas and mooring poles in risen water
Format1.41:1 C-Type
Edition5 + 2 A/P
Year2022
Plate 01 / REF_882
Flooded walkway at San Marco, Venice, at acqua alta

San Marco, Risen

Raised walkways cross the piazza like a temporary bridge between two versions of the same city.

Mooring pole standing in Venice lagoon water

The Pole

Marker 04 / Briccola

The briccole mark a channel that only becomes visible when the water disagrees with the map.

Gondolas moored in Venice canal during acqua alta

Moored, Waiting

REF_884 / SAN MARCO BASIN

San Giorgio Maggiore across the Venice lagoon in hazy light
REF_885

San Giorgio, Blurred

The island church dissolves into a yellow-grey sky, the horizon barely a suggestion.

Empty flooded piazza in Venice reflecting the sky

Mirror Piazza

The flood turns the piazza into a mirror. The city photographs itself, twice, without asking.

Reflection of Venice architecture in flood water

Doubled Facade

REF_886 // REFLECTION STUDY

Tide gauge marking historic Venice flood levels

The Gauge

A century of water levels, marked in stone.

Raised walkway crossing a flooded Venice street

Passerella

The temporary bridge, and the choreography of everyone crossing it.

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This Series

Archival pigment prints, ed. 5 + 2 A/P

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More From The Archive

Five series, one obsession with structure.

Between Stone & Sky, Concrete Horizons, Green on Brutalist, Acqua Alta and Grand Canal, Venice — each one an argument for the same idea. Explore the complete body of work.

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Working photographer based in London. Prints produced to museum standard.

Ships across the UK. 14 day returns on standard prints.

© Ralph Vitolo 2026