The Young Italian Photography | Luigi Ghirri Award 2025 has been awarded to Davide Sartori (Photography, 2024) for his KABK graduation project 'The Shape of our Eyes, Other Things I Wouldn’t Know'. Congrats Davide!
The prize is worth 4000 euros and also includes the opportunity to present a solo exhibition in the spaces of Triennale Milano. The jury had the following motivation to award the prize to Davide:
‘For having narrated and explored the father-son bond, fostering a broader critical reflection on masculinity declined with irony and tenderness; for having created an intergenerational bridge by combining photography, archive materials and performance elements ’.
Davide Sartori about his project
'For a long time, I saw my father as a stranger: someone I didn’t know how to talk to or spend time with. A few years ago, I found out about my grandfather’s premature death, when my father was coming of age, and how, because of that loss, he has been forced to follow the same career path. I realised that the absence of a traditional paternal model was something that both he and I had in common.
So I decided to focus on the question: what does it mean to be a good father? Traditionally, the father has the responsibility to work and provide. Through this distancing from the family, often both physical and emotional, the archetypal man can fulfil his obligations, and thus, his role.
In an attempt to create a connection with him, I visited his workplace and invited him into mine. They Say the Shape of Our Eyes, Other Things I Wouldn’t Know takes form as a series of attempts to get closer to my father, both physically and emotionally.
The airport and the photography studio become the backdrops for our encounters, while photography serves as a key tool to explore our relationship, in a continuous exchange of roles. The project combines collaborative actions documented photographically, portraits, and archival material, brought together in eleven attempts to narrate an exploration that becomes mutual. Collectively, these images serve as tangible proof of our relationship, capturing both the distance and the need for connection.
They Say the Shape of Our Eyes, Other Things I Wouldn’t Know wants to act as a bridge between generations, in which by facing the fear of seeing myself in my father, I become an example for him in terms of empathy. This project opens up questions related to vulnerability, seeks to question socially established norms, while aiming to activate a dialogue on intergenerational trauma, going beyond individual experience.'
About the Young Italian Photography Award
The Young Italian Photography Award was created in 2018 to support and finance the research and artistic production of photographers under 35 years of age. The recognition is awarded to the best photographic project of each edition, as selected among the finalists of the open call.
