Mediterranean Routes, Exile, and the Itinerary of Ulysses
Sub Sole (Latin: beneath the sun) is a photobook by Massao Mascaro, published by Chose Commune in September 2021. Made between 2017 and 2020, the work follows the mythological itinerary of Ulysses across seven Mediterranean cities — Ceuta, Naples, Athens, Palermo, Istanbul, Tunis, and Lampedusa — while remaining close to present-day realities: borders, crossings, migration, and displacement. The Mediterranean functions here as both geographic territory and narrative field, a space where ancient literary routes and contemporary political conditions converge.
Across 168 pages, Mascaro sequences 81 duotone photographs that operate as encounters rather than documentary reportage. Soft focus, tight cropping, and shallow depth of field give the images a tactile, proximate quality. The photographs are accompanied by a text by Federico Clavarino, which adds a parallel register without directing the images toward a fixed reading. The book is part of the Photography & Photobooks catalogue at Lokator100.
The physical object is a section-sewn silkscreened hardcover, 24.6 × 29 cm, trilingual in English, French, and Italian. Design is by Bureau Kayser; editorial direction by Cécile Poimboeuf-Koizumi. First edition, ISBN 979-10-96383-25-2.
About Massao Mascaro
Massao Mascaro was born in 1990 in Lille and lives in Brussels. He holds a Master in Photography from BlankPaper Escuela in Madrid and has taught photography at the Brussels Fine Arts Academy since 2019.
His practice moves between autobiography, topography, and politics. The use of soft focus, close framing, and shallow depth of field is consistent across his work, reflecting an interest in how people relate to the cultural and geographic spaces they inhabit. He is represented by Galerie C (Neuchâtel).
