Honorable Mention

Love for Africa
DESCRIPTION
A boy originally from Africa, raised with great love in an Italian family, thinks nostalgically of his native country and proudly wears the latter's image around his neck AUTHOR
Born in Sicily in 1974. She graduated in Psychology in Rome and specialized in psychotherapy and phototherapy. Her passion for photography began when she was a child thanks to her father who loved to portray her often. She began with landscapes, to arrive at Portraiture, a field in which she followed several workshops with Italian and international Masters, such as Giovanni Gastel and Mustafa Sabbagh. She specialized in Fashion Photography at the prestigious Kaverdash Academy in Milan.The projects she carries out move on the border between art and psychology. She is the author of two books: “Io non muoio” and “Noi siamo bellezza”, which are not simple collections of portraits: they are acts of love towards those who often feel invisible. They are emotional journeys where the gaze of the lens becomes a caress, testimony, truth.
With a conceptual language, she is also working on a series of photographic projects aimed at giving shape and face to complex issues such as mental distress, anxiety, depression, dissociation, eating disorders, trauma. Each shot is born from a process of listening and sharing, often in collaboration with the subjects themselves, who become co-authors of the images.
In a world where mental health is still somewhat of a taboo, he believes that art must take on the responsibility of completely breaking the silence. His images aim to be tools of awareness, vehicles of empathy, bridges between those who experience discomfort and those who often fail to understand it.