Gold Medal in the category « Portrait »

Like the legendary heroes of Greek mythology, Paralympic athletes are modern heroes on a journey to victory.
Navigators of willpower and sacrifice, they not only compete at the highest levels of sport, but also face challenges and obstacles along the way.
Theirs are stories of rebirth and resilience through sport.
The triumph of a Paralympic athlete with a disability is a celebration of strength and life, a true demonstration of how sport can break down barriers related to the broader concept of diversity, giving shape and value to inclusivity.
Paralympic champions are examples of strength and determination, and they journey to victory with talent and tenacity, overcoming even the greatest obstacles.
Despite this, we all know Olympic athletes, but very little is said about Paralympic athletes, I think someone should honor and celebrate them; so I tried to tell the stories of these special human through their portraits.
There's Beppe, disabled since birth due to bilateral femoral hypoplasia, who has already won bronze in cross-country skiing at the 2022 Beijing Games and participated as a triathlete at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
There's Martina, an albino who only sees shadows when she skis, who relies on her guide Ylenia and who in Beijing was the youngest athlete on the entire Italian team, just 18 years old.
And then there's Michele, for whom skiing marked a rebirth after the 2018 accident in which he lost his left leg.
These images are part of a work in progress on the Italian Paralympic athletes.
The photographic portraits are made on 20x25 cm glass plates using the ancient wet-plate collodion technique.
The choice of collodion was made not only for aesthetic reasons, but also because it is a highly complex technique that continually challenges the photographer during the production of the plates. I wanted to experience at least a little of the hardship that para-athletes face in their daily lives.
The creation of this project has been a journey for me—long, tiring, but profound and deeply satisfying, just like the journey the para-athletes will undertake from March 6th to 15th at the Milan-Cortina Paralympics.