Stefano Benazzo’s Shipwrecks

25 Apr 2021

On ‘Shipwreck’ Beaches from Lanai to Zakynthos, you’ll find visitors staring quietly out to sea, imagining what life must have been like on these rusted-out skeletons before they were run aground or abandoned.

And what to make of the hundreds of ships that have found their end in Australia’s treacherous Shipwreck Coast? How many people were able to escape safely? You get an inkling of what these ships and their inhabitants faced when you watch this modern-day crew try to salvage the Patricia Mary, a yacht that broke loose from its moorings.

Italian artist Stefano Benazzo has been travelling the world for decades, photographing more than 400 abandoned ships wedged into sand, grass, and sea. Some still find themselves pounded by waves. Others live quiet lives under heavy moss and nesting birds.

A collection of Benazzo’s shipwreck photography is now on display in Silent Witness – an exhibit at Vancouver’s Maritime Museum until July 18th, 2021. His work, we read, ‘narrates the scenes of these wrecks with light and portrays the soul of the abandoned vessels.’

In looking at his photos, Benazzo asks that we “above all, think about the people who were onboard those boats, those ships.”