The opening of the exhibitions that form the preview phase of the Festival is scheduled on September 2, at MUPAC: four solo exhibitions and one dedicated to the Travel Tales Award competition selection.

With the mountain as its theme, let’s begin with UNSEEN by Alberto Bregani, realized in collaboration with the 3M Foundation.

It shows interesting and provocative images: square, black and white, framed in black, in the tradition of classic medium format. But they were taken with a smartphone, proving the photographic tradition boundaries can be successfully crossed.

Thirtsy Iran by Iranian photojournalist Yalda Moaiery is a work about the drought caused by the construction of the Karkheh and Karun dams.

In order to supply water to one region, others in the southern province of Khuzestan were impoverished. The result was an economic, environmental and life disruption for the people.

Lidia Caputo won the Musa Prize for Women Photographers 2022 with her project Beyond Belonging. Her portraits speak to us of the human need par excellence: the recognition of other, the need for the other, that are characteristics of all, without boundaries.

Free Iran by Cesare Augello is an exhibition dedicated to the street demonstrations that took place in Italy last spring in support of the protest against the repression and violation of individual freedoms in Iran.

Last but not least, the selection of the international Travel Tales Award competition, in its third edition: TRAVELGRAM BY CPL, based on images posted on Instagram with the hashtag #TTA2023. Created by Starring, it promotes stories and author portfolios related to travel photography.

The contest started in 2021 as an initiative dedicated to professional and passionate photographers who want to showcase their best travel shots.

By “Travel Photography” the contest intends series and personal photographic projects linked to the theme and charm and the pleasure of traveling as a metaphor and lifestyle, too. The author, besides telling the places, the encounters, the emotions, has to place himself in the mood of an itinerant nomad.

Out of more than 4200 images posted, 120 were voted for and received more than 25000 likes on the link: www.instagram.com/traveltalesaward/

• September 2nd: Master Class stage photography, with the photographers Roberto Gabriele and Gigi Montali on the basics of show photography, both events/ethnic festivals and street performers.
• September 3rd: Roberto Gabriele and Gigi Montali will hold a workshop entitled His Majesty the Parmesan. The visit to a cheese factory will involve shooting during processing and learning to anticipate gestures and framing.
• September 8th: book presentation of Concordia by Alessandro Gandolfi. Ten years after the shipwreck, which cost 32 lives and much suffering, nothing remains except for thousands of tonnes of steel that were salvaged and cast in the foundations of bridges and buildings in Italy.
• September 15th: projection and editorial presentation of Ucraine & Border by Loredana de Pace, an Italian photojournalist who has documented migratory flows, social issues and conflicts around the world.
• September 16th and Sunday 17th: READ-ZINE, a reading and award for the best fanzine. The fanzine is the expression, voice and symbol of independent publishing. This competition is part of the festival’s efforts to bring together the artistic languages of young people.

• September 22nd: Storie dal Mondo by Paolo Marchetti, an independent photographer, who has been working for years in the film industry, covering every role in the field of photography.
• September 29th: Emozioni Naturali by Milko Marchetti, includes an audiovisual projection and the presentation of the book B&N Delta del Po. In over 25 years of activity, Mirko has built up an archive of over 600,000 images.
• October 1st: a POLYPHOTO event with photographic equipment to try
• October 6th: Il Mondo di Silvio: Silvio Canini intends to demythologise the decisive moment in order to imbue his images with concepts and feelings, proposing a personal and non-objective vision of what is captured by the lens.
• A portrait workshop with Foto Elite at MUPAC on 8 October will conclude this first phase of the festival.

From 13 October, with a rich programme to which we will return later, the festival will get to the heart of its exhibition proposal. Stay tuned!