© Marco Vedana from the series "Valle del Mis"

Although in progress, the results of Marco Vedana's first forays into the Valle del Mis show a frank sincerity that borders on necessity. "I'm trying to understand the place," he wrote. What is Marco looking for? I understand that the geography of "incredible ravines" sung by novelist Dino Buzzati, "between wild and inglorious mountains" has something to do with it. And how to blame him? Traveling along the second provincial road, along the narrow fissure that cuts the Belluno Dolomites Park in half, one feels the pressure of the rocky slopes pressing down, a canyon from which to exit in a hurry as if pushed by an atavistic shadow.

© Marco Vedana from the series "Valle del Mis"

© Marco Vedana from the series "Valle del Mis"

You sigh briefly when the gaze embraces the lake formed by the convex thrust of the dam—one of the many that leave no respite to the waters of this region. The sides of the mountains are heavy and thick with vegetation, always there, present, looking down from their peaks. Grim and gloomy wrote the writer from Belluno, who loved to climb mountains on foot and with words. "The light seems to be reflected everywhere with these dark green tones," says the Berlin photographer who prefers to visit these places "out of season" when solitude, an essential feature of the area, allows us to decipher its character. Similar to a desert.

Dino Buzzati on the Dolomites

© Marco Vedana from the series "Valle del Mis"

But there's more. Vedana is going up the stream of its history, which also has roots here among the cold slopes of the Veneto region. And so in that mirror of the Mis, built after that mad human willing to curb the course of life, there is also the need to reflect oneself in memory. The riddle of time. It's a mystery that becomes more moving as you go deeper. Among the dark waters. Outhere, where the reasons for departure, abandonment, aims, and only imaginary shores, the will of being fathers and thus leaving ours behind mix with obscurity. Perhaps this is also one of Marco Vedana's intentions, but we are only at the beginning of his journey from Germany to Italy. And who knows where the true destination is? A reverse pilgrimage of which much remains to be revealed.