Climate change, inequalities, gender identity: photography stimulates our consciences

Photography still manages to interpret the present, indeed. This edition of the Sony World Photography Awards, prestigious photography award who crowned the Frenchwoman Juliette Pavy as Photographer of The Year for his meticulous work documenting the consequences of the contraception campaign and forced sterilization to which Greenlandic girls were subjected by the Danish government in the 1960s and 1970s. Pavy went to Greenland and testified what women they have become, where they live and what they think teens of a time, who had a spiral implanted without consent which, in most cases, made them sterile forever. A story of unprecedented power, made up of shots like this:

© Juliette Pavy, France, Photographer of the Year, Professional competition, Documentary Projects, Sony World Photography Awards 2024

His is a photographic project that insinuates itself under the skin: it is impossible to remain indifferent. We see it displayed on the first floor of Carlo Maria Martini Diocesan Museum of Milan, from 6 June to 29 September, in the exhibition of Sony World Photography Awards 2024 curated with passion by Barbara Silbe.

The exhibition represents the Italian stage of the exhibition of the winning works of the seventeenth edition of the prize, which took place last April at the Sommerset House in London. «Pavy’s, as well as other works presented here, are striking the delicacy of the story», Silbe, who also directs the photography magazine, tells us EyesOpen! and which he selected for the occasion 160 photographs Of 52 different authors, a series of images from every part of the planet that tells a lot about us. «The main characteristic of this award», continues Silbe, «is its own variety: there are many categories that attract many photographers, both professionals and emerging young people, to participate every year. It is an award that reflects our world: each project presented must have been created in the last year. Also for this edition, the attention is confirmed not only for reportage photography, but artistic and attentive to the great themes of actuality». We walk in the large nave on the first floor of the museum, after the touching project by Juliette Pavy, there is a series of other notable works, such as those of Davide Monteleone, which won third place in the documentary category for an extensive report on cobalt quarries, on the conditions of workers and the consequences on the environment in Congo. It is one of five Italians awarded in this year’s edition together with, among others, the duo Jean-Marc Caimi And Valentina Piccinniwhich they instead effectively presented as the tropicalization of the Mediterranean is changing our lives.

© Davide Monteleone Italy 3rd Place Professional competition Documentary Projects Sony World Photography Awards 2024

© Davide Monteleone, Italy, 3rd Place, Professional competition, Documentary Projects, Sony World Photography Awards 2024

© JeanMarc Caimi amp Valentina Piccinni Italy 2nd Place Professional competition Environment Sony World Photography...

© Jean-Marc Caimi & Valentina Piccinni, Italy, 2nd Place, Professional competition, Environment, Sony World Photography Awards 2024

Interesting – and won first prize in the category Still Life – the project Flora of the Roman Federico Scarchilli: landscape photographer, with the arrival of the pandemic he turned his attention to plants and their importance in medicine. With the help of doctors and botanists, he traced the types of beneficial plants in nurseries, the essences of which are used in medicines, including anti-tumor ones. His is a research project in which images similar to those of a traditional herbarium are juxtaposed with apparently aseptic photographs of pills.

© Federico Scarchilli Italy Winner Professional competition Still Life Sony World Photography Awards 2024

© Federico Scarchilli, Italy, Winner, Professional competition, Still Life, Sony World Photography Awards 2024

© Federico Scarchilli Italy Winner Professional competition Still Life Sony World Photography Awards 2024

© Federico Scarchilli, Italy, Winner, Professional competition, Still Life, Sony World Photography Awards 2024

It is difficult to summarize an exhibition extremely varied in terms of themes and styles, hosted for the second year at the Diocesano which remains open in its cloisters throughout the summer until 10.30pm (with the happy formula exhibition + aperitif from 5.30pm, info here): you have to go and see it. «We are happy to be able to return to the Diocesan Museum which, with its history and activities in support of art and photography, is certainly a point of reference for the city of Milan – he said Stéphane Labrousse, Country Head of Sony in Italy – The 2024 edition recorded the highest number of entries ever for the Professional competition, with over 395,000 entries from more than 220 countries and territories. This confirms the strong international echo of the award, which gives space to highly topical issues, such as sustainability and geopolitics, but also to delicate issues such as family and social relationships and presents itself, more generally, as a snapshot of our time. And it does so by giving space and visibility to the widest range of international talents, from professional photographers to students and young people entering this world.”

Own The side nave is dedicated to young and emerging people of the exhibition, with a series of promising works. Above all, that of the American Kathleen Orlinsky, which was awarded the Sustainability Prizefor his documentation of a New Mexico wilderness area.

We close with the photos that hypnotized us most of all. I’m from Sujata Setiaan award-winning photographer of Asian origin now based in England, who has long focused on the topic of the female body and motherhood. Victim of abuse and violence, in this artistic project that earned her ai Sony World Photography Awards 2024 the highest recognition in the field of creative photographyhas created a series of heartbreaking ones torn photographs red in colour, made with a double print on which he traced real cuts. A thousands of cuts, a million cuts, reflects on the cyclical nature of domestic abuse and the need to break this chain of pain. Creepy.

©Sujata Setia United Kingdom winner Creative Winner Professional competition Still Life Sony World Photography Awards 2024

©Sujata Setia, United Kingdom, winner, Creative, Winner, Professional competition, Still Life, Sony World Photography Awards 2024

Source: Vanity Fair

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