BLACKFIN // “To The Roots”

…The Lagoon is the place of our roots,
our origins, it’s a part of us.
It’s where we rediscover our fragility…

In order to lend meaning to what we are today, we need to look back, all the way to our roots, and start from there. Thus, we can understand the journey that has brought us this far. It is a powerful realisation, an awareness that adds purpose to the quest for identity and responsibility that the Italian brand Blackfin undertook years ago. Every action is taken based on a principle of integrity that is embodied in the company’s very own term: neomadeinitaly.

The new 2021 campaign is intended to add another valuable layer of meaning to this continuous journey. Shot in the middle of a timeless and ethereal landscape, the campaign lets the power of natural beauty emerge and speak for itself. However, this beauty should not be an end in itself but a mirror of mindful and conscious choices.

The message is conveyed in a subtle but assertive manner: through the purity that transpires from the location. Venice’s Laguna Nord is still pristine, yet just a few minutes by boat from Piazza San Marco. A “place-not-place” constantly in motion between land and sea, where nature is real, pure and, at the same time, fragile. The laguna is a lung that, following the rhythm of the tides, purifies itself every six hours in an endless rise and fall that epitomizes how fragility is the only way to stay in balance. But to be in balance, one must be solid, that is, have roots and be aware of possessing them. A solidity expressed visually by the larch planks, a temporary work of land art placed in the water as singular vertical elements. 

Only by returning to our essence, that is, only by digging deep into our origins can we gain full awareness of our own state of wholeness.

The planks are blackened by fire using the ancient Japanese technique of Yakisugi and sunk into the laguna mud. Following the lay of the sandbars, they lend shape to a verticality that becomes an interplay of endless reflections with the models who perfectly blend into the artistic installation. Physically present, rooted, yet fleeting. 


TO THE ROOTS

There are places where fragility and balance 
are as obstinate, unstoppable and patient as life itself.
These places aren’t compatible with modern times, they are timeless.

The Lagoon is the place of our roots,
our origins, it’s a part of us.
It’s where we rediscover our fragility,
as if enveloped in a primordial slime,
in a reality which is almost a paradox of existence.

Anchored to fleeting elements, we stay balanced.

Time here is without contours or borders,
It’s the moment water becomes silent
and takes on the shape and appearance of its surroundings. 

Time stops, the space becomes another world.
It’s like reaching the peak of ecstasy, after which life regenerates.

And thanks to its roots, stays balanced.


With this new campaign, Blackfin once again delivers a visual world that goes far beyond eyewear. Drawing strength from nature, the Blackfin campaign shows us that everything is ephemeral and in constant motion and that we, as humans, can withstand any storm as long as we remain grounded, like planks in the sea, and rest within ourselves. 

art direction anidride design – Nicola De Pellegrini
photos Giovanni De Sandre
copywriting Simone Favero
special thanks to Giulio Costantini, the deus ex machina of the photo-shoot.

To check out more about BLACKFIN and their eyewear collections go to: www.blackfin.eu/ 

Brand Profile at Spectr.

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