Motors - Louis De Belle

Motors by Italian photographer Louis De Belle documents resting boat engines set against the nightly darkness of the canals of Venice. Paired with a distinctive collection of boat names, Motors shifts the focus from the city’s celebrated iconography towards the often overlooked driving forces underlying the floating city. Draped in repurposed textiles commonly found in Venetian households, Motors renders the dirty boat engines as soft and abstract sculptures. In the increasingly fragile fossil fuel era, De Belle’s images complicate the city’s enduring romanticism while quietly pointing towards its uncertain future