Boat Maintenance At Genova’s Porto Antico

The Porto Antico in Genoa has a way of blending the romantic with the mundane. Tourists tend to focus on the gleaming yachts, the glint of sunlight on the water, the distant hum of maritime history. I found myself drawn to something less glamorous but far more telling—a simple act of maintenance on a sailboat, captured mid-task.

From my vantage point, the composition presented itself naturally. The man in the red shirt bends over the stern, his white hair almost glowing under the midday sun. In the foreground, another man, back turned to us, anchors the scene and adds depth. The large ship’s wheel to the right and the tangle of ropes lend structure to the frame, leading the eye inwards.

Technically, the challenge lay in handling the hard Mediterranean light. Shooting at midday, the sun was merciless, casting deep shadows and bright highlights. I exposed for the whites of the boat to avoid losing detail, which meant allowing some shadow areas—particularly on the man in the vest—to go darker than they might in a softer light. The colours are naturally saturated, boosted by the reflective water, so I resisted the temptation to push them further in post-production.

There’s an unvarnished honesty to the scene: no pretence, no theatricality, just two men working on a boat. The photograph isn’t about spectacle—it’s about the labour that keeps a vessel afloat, the unspoken coordination between hands that know their tools and their trade. In a place celebrated for its views, I chose instead to look down, into the reality of maritime life.