Federica Torrenti wins the Luigi Ghirri Award with "The Fortress"

Federica Torrenti is the winner of the 13th edition of Giovane Fotografia Italiana | Premio Luigi Ghirri. The Bolognese artist, born in 1999, was awarded by the jury composed of Arianna Catania, Adele Ghirri, Stefano Graziani, Damiano Gullì and Giangavino Pazzola for the project La Fortezza, obtaining an award worth 4,000 euros and the possibility to hold a solo exhibition at the Triennale Milano, a partner institution of the project.

“For the ability to explore the theme of the mind and knowledge related to it in an original and articulate way, combining the language of photography and scientific research, starting from a background in non-photography,” the jury indicates, “for having reconstructed a mapping of the mechanisms that orient consciousness, through the links between living and non-living, trying to give voice to the complexity of the invisible.”

The award-winning work is situated within a research that interweaves photography, science and philosophical reflection. Torrenti, who in addition to his artistic activity is a physician specializing in Diagnostic Imaging, developed his path from an interest in the applications of the photographic medium in the medical field. During his training he turned his attention to neuroscientific studies and attempts to understand reality, gradually broadening the field of investigation toward consciousness understood as a territory to be explored.

The Fortress stems from such a perspective and is constructed through the juxtaposition of scientific, anatomical and natural images. The project challenges the idea of an isolated mind, proposing instead a relational vision in which human and nonhuman result co-generative. Photography becomes a tool to make perceptible a network of invisible connections that constitute the experience of reality, restoring a circular dimension of the relationship with the world.

Underlying Torrenti’s artistic practice is the concept of intra-action elaborated by physicist Karen Barad, which overcomes the distinction between subject and object. The photographic image is used as a device for investigating the dynamic relations between individual and otherness. The research is developed through a dialogue with different disciplines, including biology, physics, philosophy and mind studies, with the aim of interrogating the boundary between the visible and invisible, between perception and the construction of reality.

The La Fortezza project has already won recognition in other contexts: it was awarded best portfolio in the 2025 edition of Fotografia Europea and was selected for the Back and Forth program promoted by Fonderia 20.9 in Verona.

Alongside the main prize, Giovane Fotografia Italiana gave additional awards to the seven finalists in the exhibition: Susanna De Vido, Karim El Maktafi, Alice Jankovic, Cinzia Laliscia, Anie Maki, Eva Rivas Bao and Torrenti herself. The special mention New Trajectories, sponsored by theItalian Cultural Institute in Stockholm, was awarded by Francesco Di Lella to Karim El Maktafi for the project Archive of the Sea. The Italian-Moroccan photographer, born in Desenzano del Garda in 1992, will have the opportunity to carry out a period of study and research in Sweden and present the work produced in a solo exhibition at the Institute’s headquarters.

Archive of the Sea addresses the theme of contemporary migration in the Mediterranean through objects recovered after shipwrecks. The artist focuses attention on the lives of men, women and children crossing the sea, entrusting personal effects with the task of restoring traces of interrupted existences. The objects thus take on a testimonial function, configuring themselves as silent presences that restore identity and dignity to the missing people.

Another opportunity was given to Eva Rivas Bao, born in Milan in 2001, who was selected to participate in the Photo-Match portfolio reading program organized by Fotofestiwal Łódź in Poland. The artist, shown with An Italian Story, will also receive an artist’s award. The project addresses the issue of media and political narratives in the Berlusconi era, interrogating the role of missing images and visual constructions. The court case involving Silvio Berlusconi is reworked through the figure of model Imane Fadil, generating a reflection on the “debris” of a public imaginary based on image and its omissions.

Anie Maki, pseudonym of Anna Michelotti, born in Sterzing in 1998, was instead selected by the Photoworks festival to participate in a program of portfolio readings in Brighton & Hove, UK, also receiving an artist award. The project presented, Milk, Weight, Gravity, addresses a family genealogy marked by trauma and silences, focusing on a narrative that interweaves personal memory and collective dimensions. The research is developed through the recovery and reworking of stories and images, in a process that takes the form of a retroactive intervention on memory.

All seven finalists will also benefit from an important networking opportunity thanks to the Fotodok festival in Utrecht, which will involve them in a workshop at the Tiratura space in Ravenna to produce a zine intended for distribution in international contexts dedicated to photography. The project was also able to count on the support of the Gruppo Giovani Imprenditori Confindustria Reggio Emilia, which contributed financially to the production of the works presented in a series of video projections at the exhibition. The group has been supporting young artists for years through grants dedicated to the development of research, both nationally and internationally.

Promoted by the Municipality of Reggio Emilia and curated by Ilaria Campioli and Daniele De Luigi, Giovane Fotografia Italiana | Premio Luigi Ghirri takes the shape of an established platform for the promotion of emerging photography in Italy. The project represents a point of reference for artists, offering opportunities for visibility and inclusion in national and international exhibition circuits. The current edition, entitled Voci / Voices, proposes a reflection on the power of images in giving shape to what remains invisible or unheard. The exhibition brings together different practices that traverse intimate, political and environmental realms, constructing an articulate narrative of contemporaneity. The works in the exhibition outline a complex visual landscape in which individual and collective dimensions are intertwined with memories and imaginaries.

The exhibition is on display at the Palazzo dei Musei in Reggio Emilia and can be visited until June 14 with free admission. It will be open on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Two guided tours, with free admission, are also scheduled on Saturday, May 16 and Saturday, May 23 at 11:30 a.m., conducted by the project curators.

Young Italian Photography 13 | Luigi Ghirri Prize 2026 - Voices / Voices is a project realized thanks to the European Funds of the Emilia-Romagna Region. Promoted by Municipality of Reggio Emilia in partnership with Luigi Ghirri Foundation, Italian Cultural Institute of Stockholm and Triennale Milano. The initiative is realized in collaboration with GAI - Association for the Circuit of Young Italian Artists, Fotografia Europea, Fotodok, Fotofestiwal Łódz, Photoworks. With the contribution of Reire srl and Gruppo Giovani Imprenditori Confindustria Reggio Emilia.

Federica Torrenti wins the Luigi Ghirri Award with "The Fortress"

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