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Stefano Balma

My name is Stefano Balma, and I am a landscape photographer, born in Turin in 1988.
At every stage of my life, I have devoted myself to some form of art, such as drawing and music. In 2018, I moved to Genoa, where I discovered photography, which I have explored and developed as a self-taught artist during my travels.

My photographs, mainly focused on natural landscapes and details, stem from a desire to explore introspective themes that are very dear to me, such as the relationship between matter and time, the sense of impermanence, and our connection with the world around us.

stefanobalma.com

From the project “Shapes of Earth”, Jordan 2023

Impermanence is nature's language. Translating this language into photographs is what I try to do with my shots.

My name is Stefano Balma and I am a landscape photographer born in Turin (Italy) in 1988. In every phase of my life, I have dedicated myself to some form of art, first with drawing, then with music. In 2017, I moved to Genoa, and in 2019, I encountered photography during a wonderful tour in Morocco with my wife. For that trip, I bought my first camera, a Nikon Z50, whose functions I knew nothing about and which I used strictly in automatic mode, with very poor results. I knew absolutely nothing about photography, and it had never interested me before, but I felt that it was through a camera that I would best capture those wonderful experiences.

Since that moment, I have dedicated at least one or two hours a day to photography, studying technique, composition and post-production, all aspects that I find interesting and fascinating. I also renewed my equipment in a short time, replacing the Z50 (APS-C) with a Z6II (FF) and investing in quality lenses.

Nature has always been my main subject, but over the years, I have tried to include more introspective themes in my shots, which have always been very important in my life. By attending a local Buddhist community, I have developed a particular sensitivity towards themes such as impermanence and the flow of existence, which I have progressively tried to represent through wind-eroded rocks and the mutability of arctic landscapes.

From the project “Shapes of Earth”, Utah, USA 2021

Shapes of Earth: Nature's Eternal Sculpture

"Shapes of Earth" is a project that I "found myself with" without realizing it. When I started traveling I was mainly attracted to Northern Europe, while my wife had a weakness for Africa and the Middle East. So we bounced between Iceland and Namibia, Greenland and Jordan, Norway and Morocco, all very different places, but united by extraordinary beauty.

When I felt the need to work on projects, a friend recommended the photobook "The Creation" by Ernst Haas, which became a great source of inspiration, giving me the means to find a common thread among my images. Analyzing my archive, I noticed that many photographs showed places with a certain dynamic, strongly shaped by time and elements. From here "Shapes of Earth" was born, to represent the incessant metamorphosis of the landscape (the Earth itself) through the elements Fire, Air and Water.

From the project “Shapes of Earth”, White Desert, Egypt 2025

Technical and Artistic Evolution

Having developed the theme based on shots I already possessed, the project was still incomplete and with several visually inconsistent images. The first step to complete it was to add a lens to my equipment. I mainly shot with a wide-angle and a medium telephoto, covering focal lengths from 14 to 200mm; I bought a more powerful telephoto, a Sigma 100-400mm, which allowed me to capture many more details. This choice proved fundamental in giving variety and richness to the project, while at the same time allowing me to better link the various groups of images.

I then planned the trips of the last two years to visit places with precise landscape characteristics, so as to complete the first part of the work. After seeing photos from a friend, I went to Egypt to capture the beautiful limestone formations of the White Desert, a place sculpted by wind and silence. Then, I returned to Iceland to photograph the volcanic landscapes present in the beautiful highlands. With a certain satisfaction I managed to give space to my territory by collecting a good number of images of a stretch of the Genoese coast called Lungomare di Nervi, which with its beautiful textures does not pale at all when compared to much more famous places.

From the project “Shapes of Earth”, kerlingarfjöll, Iceland 2023

Project Challenges

Photographing while traveling inevitably means leaving some shots in the field. Conditions are often not perfect, and it happens that you have to change plans and improvise. I would like to return to photograph the deserts of Arizona and Utah and still capture the tufa of Mono Lake at the foot of the Sierra Nevada. I went there 4 years ago during our honeymoon trip, but at that moment I was not yet photographically ready for that vastness and I wasted a lot. Photographing those places made me understand why so many great photographers were born in the United States and how those landscapes shaped their style.

Over time I have greatly refined the organizational and photographic aspects of travel, trying not to rely completely on weather conditions to bring home good shots. This has greatly influenced my photographic style: I have focused on making the best use of the quality of available light and on capturing intimate scenes, rather than relying on the hope of finding a beautiful sunset sky.

From the project “Shapes of Earth”, Lofoten islands, Norway 2025

Future Developments

Shapes of Earth is the result of six years of photography, which I hope one day to be able to collect in a book. Precisely for this reason, the project is still expanding: I have already planned the next destinations, mostly in Italy, a country with an extraordinary naturalistic and geological heritage but still little known. I want to show how the same transformative events that shaped Iceland or Utah have given birth to masterpieces here too, at my home.

From the project “Shapes of Earth”, Genova, Italy 2024

Other Projects

Parallel to "Shapes of Earth", I have developed two other projects that explore similar themes from different perspectives. "Shapes of Ice, on the life of arctic glaciers", represents the agony of glacier melting and their progressive dissolution into water. Ice is an element that inspires me a lot because of its mutability and its delicacy.

I organized a trip to Disko Bay specifically to be able to capture the icebergs of Greenland, a country that already glimpses the political and environmental consequences of global warming. Telling the story of ice melting is the way I have chosen to draw attention to this problem and, at the same time, reflect on the flow of life and the transformation of what surrounds us.

From the project “Shapes of Ice”, Skaftafell glacier, Iceland 2024

"Sati Vana" instead is a project developed entirely in my region and stems from a personal interpretation of the Beigua Natural Park. Located between sea and mountain, the park is characterized by vast beech forests often shrouded in fog, which create an atmosphere suspended between dream and wakefulness transforming its forests into a place of introspection and transformation.

It is in this liminal space that trees seem to come to life and interact with us, establishing relationships that are not always idyllic, indeed, often disturbing and destabilizing; it is in this dimension that we have the possibility to recognize what manifests inside and outside of us, as part of a single reality in constant transformation.

From the project “Sati Vana”, Beigua Natural Park, Liguria, Italy, 2024

Photography has given me back the enthusiasm of discovery, that curious and amazed look that you have as children. For me it is a great game, and I have the fortune of being able to play it every day. Transforming what we live into images is anything but simple: it requires constant work on oneself, on one's ability to observe, feel and communicate. Sometimes it can be frustrating, but I often find it therapeutic.

And to think that everything started just to preserve some travel memories! But you know, after every trip you never really return the same as before.