TITLE: Night Swimmer

Night Swimmer explores the interplay between body, water, and light—an intimate journey through vulnerability, transformation, and resilience. Water, both life-giving and endangered, represents a paradox: origin and threat, freedom and constraint.

In darkness, the swimmer becomes a silhouette adrift in a liquid void. Fleeting illuminations reveal moments of struggle and grace as the water alternates between resistance and embrace. This tension reflects a deeper human duality—our desire for liberation weighed against invisible boundaries.

Part of a broader dialogue with my series Return to Sender, which examines external constraints, Night Swimmer turns inward. It investigates identity as fluid and origin as uncertain. Presented in black and white, the series strips the image to its essence—light, shadow, and texture—offering a meditative experience on water’s symbolic and existential power.

AUTHOR: Maurizio Cigognetti (Australia)

Maurizio Cigognetti is an Italian-born visual artist currently based in Australia. After many years working as a commercial film director and photographer, he has recently returned to a more personal, poetic form of visual storytelling. His images often explore the human body, movement, and the subtle tension between presence and absence. Working primarily in black and white, he seeks to convey emotion through restraint, atmosphere, and ambiguity. Photography has become, for him, a quiet space for reflection — a way to listen rather than speak and to observe without intrusion.