Ammon News - A full Moon, strong winds, and a vicious cyclone combined to hit Venice with its second-worst flood in history in 2019. Today, books saved from the water tell a story of profound loss and quiet resistance, highlighting the fragility of the city's cultural heritage.

On the night of 12 November 2019, photographer Patrizia Zelano saw the tragic news of the flood. The next morning, she traveled from her home in Rimini to the stricken city, which was still in a state of emergency. Due to a perfect storm of factors—a sirocco wind surge combined with a full Moon tidal peak and a fast-moving cyclone—the sea level had risen by 1.89m, submerging 85% of the city center. The disaster was second only to the catastrophic 1966 Acqua Granda, which first drew global attention to the crisis of Venice’s survival.

Over a two-day adventure, Zelano salvaged 40 books. Though most are now unreadable, her photographs of the ruined volumes document the disaster and push toward possible solutions for the lagoon’s future.

A City Submerged
Wearing rubber boots, Zelano waded from the train station through the city’s main thoroughfares, which were still about 40cm (1ft 3in) underwater. She first visited a friend's house where the tide had recently retreated. She recalled seeing furniture and objects piled up like trash, all completely drenched. While the homeowners focused on saving salvageable items, Zelano was struck by the books, finding them beautiful in their decay and symbolism. One volume from the house, she noted, looked like "an archeological find from the Stone Age," cemented shut and impossible to open.

Determined to save more, Zelano contacted Lino Frizzo, a bookseller whose store is aptly named Acqua Alta (high water). Frizzo, busy with clean-up and inventory salvage, gave Zelano books that were beyond repair. Most were from the early 1900s—old, though not antique, by Italian standards—including a poetry anthology with a lush red fabric cover, which Zelano described as "an injured book."

Preserving Memory Through Photography
Zelano managed to transport her 40 salvaged books back to the station with the help of a passing gondoliere, as she could not carry them alone. She noted that some volumes would crumble at the slightest touch. One particular volume looked delicate, like lace, creating a fantasy of words formed by fragments of compressed pages.

Back in her studio, Zelano, a former student of photography master Guido Guidi, photographed the books using only natural light. She did not open them but captured them as they were. One volume, a Treccani encyclopedia from 1949, featured an image of the Genius of the Catacombs of Domitilla, a Pagan entity and a symbol of protection, which she found reassuring.

Another encyclopedia volume from 1951, distorted by the water, reminded her of sea waves. Zelano recognizes that events like the 2019 flood are expected to happen increasingly often due to rising sea levels and the city's subsidence. Through her photos, she aims to create "a eulogy to culture, to our history... a universal knowledge," transforming the loss into an act of healing and resistance.

One photo captured an encyclopedic volume while it was still wet, with a visible water drop on the front, its shape metaphorically reflecting the tidal movement. Given that global sea levels are rising and Venice is losing land through subsidence, Venetians increasingly accept floods as part of their life, aware that the city's Mose flooding defense system is only a partial solution.

Zelano views her work as symbolic, intended to provoke reflection. She states: "Photography is fundamental because it can bear witness, but at the same time also evoke something else... It is a form of awareness aimed at finding solutions." Her photographs, which preserve knowledge and transform destruction into hope, have been celebrated as part of the prestigious Prix Pictet sustainability photography award and exhibition, with upcoming shows scheduled in London, Dubai, and Tokyo.