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24 October 2024 - 08 March 2025, Villa Malpensata, Spazio Maraini
La Fondazione culture e musei (FCM) and the Museo delle Culture di Lugano (MUSEC) announce the winners of the 2024 edition of Unpublished Photo (UP), the international competition created to promote new trends in art photography among young talents from around the world. The 2024 edition of UP saw the participation of over two hundred young photographers from thirty-five countries, with strong representation from Iran, Italy, India and Russia. The candidates, aged between 18 and 30, submitted their projects consisting of 10 free-themed images, consistent in style and content. The four winners were selected by an international jury chaired by Marco Bischof, which met in Venice at the headquarters of the Istituto veneto di Scienze Lettere ed Arti, a partner in the project together with 29 ARTS IN PROGRESS gallery. The others members of the jury are: Eugenio Calini; Francesco Paolo Campione; Paolo Gerini; Giovanna Palandri e Tiziana Serena. The exhibition curated by Alessia Borellini presents 24 photographs, six for each project opens from 24.10.2024 until 9.03.2025.
UP25 contest will be open from 20 January to 3 March 2025. Interested photographers are invited to follow MUSEC's social channels (IG @museclugano and FB MusecLugano) for updates; as soon as the competition is online, they can apply through the form available on the Culture and Museums Foundation website: www.fcmusei.ch/contest.
Together, alone
Amirhosein Esparham, born in Bardaskan (Iran) in 1996, is a photographer and video-maker who is distinguished for his ability to tell stories through powerful
and intriguing images. His project Together, alone deals with the theme of loneliness, a feeling that, according to Esparham, is increasingly becoming
common in his country, also due to the discontent arising from a complex political situation.
Realized between June 2022 and June 2023, this project presents five stories, each of them expressed in a sequence of two images. The pictures portray
Esparham’s friends, acquaintances, and family members; before his camera lens they opened up, telling their deepest fears and fragilities. These diptychs
show how loneliness is not limited by social class, gender, or age, thus underscoring the universality of this state of mind. What makes these images
particularly inspiring is the masterful use of light, which bestows intense and timeless pathos on the image, as well as revealing the artist’s extraordinary
mastery of the scene’s composition.
Esparham’s photos are not mere visual representations; rather, they are veritable stories that capture the essence of human emotions, making visible
what often remains hidden in a person’s most intimate self.
Cuore nero - Metrò
Gabriele D’Agostino, born in Palermo in 1995, is a photographer who currently lives and works in Milan and goes by the name Dago. Greatly affected
by his father’s death when he was still a child, the artist developed a special sensitivity towards small gestures, seeking traces of life and humanity therein.
This research can be found in his reportage Cuore Nero - Metrò, a project that he created, or better «stolen» in 2022 in the underground, using
his mobile phone. The project is an intriguing exploration of the contrast between the search for emotions, delicateness, and intimacy and a particularly
impersonal place, where the hectic rhythm and the anonymity of the crowd often encourage distancing rather than connection.
Nonetheless, Dago still manages to capture moments of gentleness and lightness, capable of bringing a smile to the viewers’ faces. His images are echoed in us all because we can all see ourselves in those portraits and in those gestures of affection, or else may want to feel the same emotions.
Dago’s photographs are not just visual documentations; they are the veritable evocations of a universal desire for human connection. In an apparently
cold and anonymous space like the underground, his images succeed in capturing and conveying the essence of human warmth, demonstrating that
delicateness can also be found in the most unexpected places.
Every saint has a past
Ever since she was a child Claudy Woods, born in Boston (Lincolnshire) in 2003, has had a deep passion for art history. This led her to create, between
November 2023 and February 2024, the project Every saint has a past. Woods reinterpreted the traditional iconography of ten saints, using the self-portrait as a means to communicate her thoughts. The images are re-elaborated with colours and details that infuse a unique and profoundly inspiring touch to the final results. Claudy Woods’ photographs strike us for their authenticity and the courage with which the artist questions herself, making the message she wants to convey even more powerful and personal. As a young woman of her generation, Woods finds herself immersed in an intense research for identity and a challenge for gender affirmation, seeking to overcome the patterns and pre-conceptions that continue to permeate society. The artist comes from an Irish Catholic family on her mother’s side, and although she is no longer a practicing Catholic, she still perceives the weight of the past, which is manifested in her sense of guilt and shame, especially when it comes to matters related to sex and femininity. The saints represented were chosen by virtue of the stupefying courage they showed, fighting for their ideals until their death. The images create a profound dialogue between past and present, transforming her reinterpretations into powerful reflections on the female condition and personal identity.
Nature's drama
Navonil Dutta, born in Calcutta in 1999, has dedicated over a decade to nature photography and birdwatching, developing a deep passion for the documentation of wildlife. The portfolio Nature’s drama, produced in October 2023 in Tal Chhapar Sanctuary, in northwestern Rajasthan, is a powerful chronicle of the crude and implacable dance between predator and prey. The sequence captures a laggar falcon in action, in a series of breathtaking moments. The bird of prey’s penetrating gaze on a spiny tailed lizard, and the following instant when it uses its strong wings to strike it, ends with the bird swooping lethally to capture its prey. This hunting sequence reveals the falcon’s lethal precision, underscoring its essential role in the balance of nature. What emerges from Navonil Dutta’s lens is the wild beauty of this desert scenario, where survival is a constant battle and the harmony of nature is manifested in all its dramatic intensity. Navonil Dutta’s photographs are not just a representation of animal life, but rather a profound reflection on the force and vulnerability of nature, revealing a world in which every movement and every instant are part of an inexorable and fascinating life cycle.