It wasn’t until fashion photographer—and now also nature photographer—Enzo Barracco got to the Galapagos to shoot his 2023 book, The Skin of Rock, that he learned to accept that the animals were in charge. He was accustomed to working in a studio, where every model and outfit and shaft of light were completely in his control, and now he was in the wild, where absolutely nothing was.
“The Galapagos was incredible,” he says, “like a walk in a prehistoric time. There were so many sharks in very dark water, and the experience was to connect me more deeply with them. They’re a very sophisticated animal and not very well understood.”
Barracco’s journey to the Galapagos followed a more ambitious trek he made to Antarctica for his 2016 book, The Noise of Ice: Antarctica, where he documented the state of a continent both stunning and threatened—shedding ice into open sea as climate change steadily warms the planet. It was a career pivot inspired by a book Barracco read about Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton—one that made him want to see the bottom of the world for himself and share with others what he beheld.
“It is easy to take action when you witness the majestic, endless power of Antarctica—a very beautiful, but very fragile place,” he says. “I believe photography is a powerful tool to help us connect to the natural world. As I always say, photography doesn’t need translation.”
Recently, Barracco headed afield again—this time to Hawaii, for his newest book, The Blue on Fire: Hawaii, set to be released on Dec. 11. And this time he didn’t leave his fashion roots too far behind. Barracco is working as a member of the Prada Group’s Sea Beyond project, a public education and awareness program, undertaken in partnership with the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO. Since 2019, Sea Beyond has taken its message of ocean conservation and protection to communities, thought leaders, and especially schools. The group, with Barracco’s assistance, has distributed an ocean education module to almost 35,000 students attending 184 schools in 54 countries. Lorenzo Bertelli, Prada’s head of marketing and communications, penned the introduction to Barracco’s new book.
“In my role as an ambassador to the project,” says Barracco, “I have the privilege and responsibility to spread the vision and the principles of Sea Beyond to inspire others to learn and then act to protect the ocean.”
While water covers 70% of our world’s surface, it is the far smaller patch around the Hawaiian island chain that is claiming Barracco’s attention at the moment. The title of his book recalls the devastation wrought by the 2023 Maui wildfire, which claimed 102 lives and destroyed 80% of the town of Lahaina. The blaze was traced to a downed power line that ignited dry vegetation in an area already suffering from moderate drought. It was just the kind of fire in paradise that environmentalists have been warning about for decades as climate change has emerged as an existential threat—and it is just the kind of terrible legacy the generations that have caused the problem are leaving the young generation just coming along. Sea Beyond and Barracco’s new book might help them envision a different future.
“I have a beautiful daughter and she inspires me every day in my life and in my work,” says Barracco. “The young generation are very angry about the ocean they are about to inherit.”
Below are selections from Barracco’s new book—capturing the fragile magnificence of a Hawaii that still endures.
