Closer to the sea

Winter season on the Italian coast. Photobook

Overview

“Closer to the sea” is a photobook-essay about winter season on the Riviera of Ulysses (Riviera di Ulisse) of the Italian coast between Rome and Naples. Ulysses is latin name of Odysseus, an ancient Greek traveler, the main hero of the Homer’s epic of the same name.

For four months, from November to March, the author went out with her camera and observed how the sea changes: high tides and low tides, storms or calm, all shades of blue, and more. She watched people fishing, cycling by, swimming in the cold water, catching waves with their surfboards, and just walking along the promenades at sunsets. Using Riviera of Ulysses, as well as three neighboring Neapolitan islands, Procida, Ischia, and Ponza, as an example, the author shows the wild beauty of the sea without swimming rings, beaches without umbrellas, and quiet coastal settlements without tourists. In particular, you will visit Sperlonga, Terracina, San Felice Circeo, Gaeta, and Formia through her photographic vision. Yeah, it’s that simple: to experience the wild sea, it is enough to come to the Italian coast in winter, breaking the “summer sea vacation” formula. To any coast.

The book is addressed to travelers with a camera, who are not tied to vacation dates or want to change them. It will give an inspiration to everyone who wants to live a real life and not an artificial one, to talk to themselves and not only listen to others, to be part of nature and not its master. Being at the sea in the low season is one way to do this.

Author

Irina Kudres — outdoor photographer, photojournalist and visual storyteller, co-founder of Panoramica creative studio in the Italian Alps.

Her travels on the various European seas began in early childhood. Together with her mom, once a year, they went to Italy, Spain, Croatia, Greece, Bulgaria, and other countries, where they moved by car or trains, visiting popular tourist attractions and stopping in quiet seaside towns. Usually in the summer or early autumn. The turning point that changed her mind about typical summer vacations was her first independent trip in Barcelona in winter. Since then, she has spent a few months each year at the sea, studying its wild beauty and watching other local people and visitors doing the same thing.

This is her first major solo book, although she has published a women’s wedding magazine in her own company and helped others with their editorial project for 10 years of her professional career.

All formats

Highlights

• 80 photographs
• 4 months of traveling
• 9 sea locations

Contents

Author
Map
Introduction
1. The opening frame
2. Sperlonga 1
3. Terracina
4. San Felice Circeo
5. Gaeta and Formia
6. Islands: Procida, Iscia, Ponza
7. Sperlonga 2
8. The closing frame
Conclusion
Sources
Acknowledgements
Catalog

Book data

Title: Closer to the sea: Winter season on the Italian coast. Photobook
Author: Irina Kudres
Publisher: Panoramica
Date of first publication: spring 2025
Language: English
Translation from Russian to English: Irina Kudres
Photographs: Irina Kudres
E-book: mobi, epub with 80 color photographs
Paper book: hardcover, b&w print with photographs
Print run: print-on-demand
Foreign rights: available for purchase for all languages, countries and formats

This book is also available in Russian.

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Go to Irina’s Profile page or to the all Books page.