Escape into the lens of freelance photographer Giampiero Torello with this breathtaking series of shots. Torello is an Italian native but works as a renewable energies consultant in Cape Town, and has lived in South Africa since 2014.
Shipwrecks, lighthouses, starry skies, rugged shores, and everything else the coast of South Africa brings forth in Torello’s photographs. His process is also very interesting, as he believes seascapes are the most beautiful when no one is actually there: “I often find this beauty in seascapes at sunset or twilight when all people have gone home, or in nightscapes - above all in winter when the air is clear and cold and the sky is full of stars,” he explained.
He sets his camera to long exposures and takes his shot when it is completely dark. He believes his camera lens and flash can reveal the scene’s secreted splendor. In addition to that Torello's trips are escapades rather than typical photographic pursuits, particularly when he has to scramble back to civilization with only a small torch.
“It is almost an exploration and there is always some kind of suspense, or even anxiety, in the whole activity” he said, “I am happy when I am back to my car with my pack my gear packed, and I’m driving home thinking of the secrets caught with my camera.”
“Sometimes at night the camera brings to my eyes bizarre shapes of ordinary objects that I don’t not even notice during daytime," Torello says. “The night sky can be unbelievable with the Milky Way and other galaxies captured by the camera.”
Delve into Torello’s camera lens and explore the South African Coast:
1. The Milky Way over a Quiver Tree (Kokerboom), Augrabies Falls National Park, South Africa.
2. Quiver Trees under the stars in the Augrabies National Park, South Africa.
3. Noordhoek Beach, Cape Peninsula, South Africa.
4. Noordhoek beach, Cape Peninsula, South Africa.
5. Noordhoek beach, Cape Peninsula, South Africa.
6. Twilight on the Atlantic Ocean, South Africa.
7. The Atlantic Ocean from the coast at Kommetjie, South Africa.
8. Atlantic Ocean, Cape Peninsula, South Africa.
9. Atlantic Ocean, Cape Peninsula, South Africa.
10. A tiny country chapel somewhere on the mountains close to Cape Town.
11. Slangkop, close to the southern tip of the Cape Peninsula, the Cape of Good Hope.
12. Little Karoo, South Africa.
13. Karoo, South Africa.
14. On the mountains of the Little Karoo, South Africa.
15. The town of Hout Bay, on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean along the Cape Peninsula.
Images are courtesy of Giampiero Torello/Rex Shutterstock
