At the start of his career, the Turin-based photographer was drawn to the Romantic aesthetic, which he later abandoned – as can easily be seen here – in favour of a more austere and modern style of imagery, inspired by the New Objectivity movement. The essentiality of the lines and the geometric forms are prominent features in *Serpe d’acqua*, a photograph that demonstrates how a view of no particular merit can be captured with deliberate irony and transformed into an interesting subject. Always driven by a deeply innovative spirit, thirty years later Moncalvo ventured into colour: here too, he started from a traditional image to create a work that goes beyond mere description, leading to an exploration of colour played out entirely through the most delicate shades.