Interpretations: Photographer Cindy Ciccodemarco on Tide

Ahead of the launch of our new summer-inspired Verano collection, we asked Toronto-based photographer Cindy Ciccodemarco for her interpretation of the collection’s theme of forging connection with one another through a shared experiences with our outdoor natural surroundings. The following are her words on the subject, following a day of photographing the collection on the sandy shores of the nearby Bluffer’s Park Marina, located just outside of the city.

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For as far back as I am able to recall, I have always been drawn to water. Its vastness, its colours, its smells, everything. I was born in the small town of Pescara in the Abruzzo region of Italy and spent my earliest years living along the Adriatic Coast. During that time, the ocean was as much a part of my everyday life as roads are to those who live in cities, or mountains to those along the Canadian west coast. 

Despite having emigrated from Italy to Canada with my family at the age of 6, away from the coast, the breeze, the sand, and into a quiet inland suburb just outside of Toronto, I am always amazed by how quickly I am brought back to that small Italian town and its waters each time I find myself on a shore. 

When I was first asked to photograph the collection and introduced to its pieces and the concept behind it, I found myself drawn to its beauty, but could not predict how deeply I would connect with its theme until completing the shoot. Having my bare feet in the sand and water immediately took me back to the Adriatic Coast and the family, friends, and neighbours we would visit it with each day. 

This collection reminds me of a place I will forever call home, and the people that made it feel that way. Somewhere I feel connected to in countless ways that I dream of returning to again someday for longer than I have had the chance to since leaving. Though this place is thousands of miles away, the water always finds a way to bring me back.

Photos: (1) Age 2, on a beach in Pescara, Italy; (2) Visiting Positano, Italy, 2017; (3 and 4) Arriving to Positano from Naples, Italy, 2017

A few words I had jotted down from that  day at Bluffer’s Park Marina: 

I sit shoreside as the waves crash against the sand. Bells from the granita cart sounding off in the distance as I try to resist the under-tide, tugging at my feet. 
I can no longer hold my place in the pebbled sand and the ripples carry me away as the warm, evening sun kisses my crimsoned cheeks. 
She is Mother Nature’s most brilliant but cruel gift.
Fooling us with her soft, glistening waves, only to crash like lightning onto the shore.
Overthrowing everything in her path, toppling bits of broken shells and weathered stones, her tide rising and falling as the moon plays its role as puppeteer.  
She has a way of making you feel so powerless and small beside her vastness. 
Her shimmering waves, mesmerizing admirers from afar, clouding their thoughts with hazy summer memories.

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We are incredibly grateful to be collaborating with Cindy for the Verano campaign's imagery. You can view the campaign photos on the collection's page and more of her work on her Instagram.