Cinque Terre Photo Award - The Winners
The gallery with the winners' photos at the link
On the evening of Saturday 28 September, an almost unprecedented Vernazza welcomed onlookers and the winners of the Cinque Terre Photo Award, the first photographic competition of the Cinque Terre National Park - Marine Protected Area, dedicated to telling the story of the territory and its complex interweaving of worlds. The event, part of the 'Un Mare di Discorsi' Festival, opened and closed with performances by the Danseávie CorpoUnico ASD school, which staged choreographies inspired by the sounds of the sea, a prelude to the visual journey between nature, traditions and the human element.
The evening was opened by the mayor of Vernazza, Marco Fenelli, who drew attention to the fatigue and beauty inherent in the Cinque Terre, quoting the words of a famous photographer: 'I come here to photograph fatigue'. A powerful echo of how much this landscape is the result of work and sacrifice, a theme also taken up by Patrizio Scarpellini, Director of the Park, who emphasised how photography should not be limited to a distracted recording, as often happens on social media, but can become an act of knowledge and deep reflection on the territory. 'Photography helps one to cross the territory calmly in order to get to know it,' Scarpellini emphasised, 'It allows one to open a window, even to compare what we sometimes do not see, but it is fundamental to reflect on various themes.
The competition, organised by the Park together with Spazi Fotografici, attracted entries from all continents. Over a thousand photographs were received and scrutinised. Among the participants were numerous young photographers under 30, but also a significant representation of local inhabitants, testifying to the strong link between life, vision and narration of the territory.
Guided by the expert voice of photographer Davide Marcesini, the winners of the Cinque Terre Photo Award were unveiled one by one and celebrated one by one, each with their own story and their own view of the world.
In the Naturalia category, Ilaria Gonelli, with her delicate and fascinating photograph of a Nudibranch Cratena peregrina, won over the jury for the precision and skill with which she captured this fragile sea inhabitant. The almost hypnotic image allowed viewers to immerse themselves in the marine biodiversity that inhabits the depths of the Cinque Terre.
In second place, Rossella Priori offered a skilful visual synthesis of the Cinque Terre territory. Spontaneous vegetation combats the vineyard, the dry stone walls, a typical work of man, in turn constitute a natural micro-environment rich in life. Although they are artificial structures, created to transform the natural slopes into a sequence of shelves useful for cultivating vines, the dry stone walls are vertical habitats and host plant and animal species that enrich the biodiversitỳ of the territory.
Finally, third place went to Piero Papa, whose photograph of the Alpine Newt transformed a small amphibian into a warning message about the fragility of inland aquatic ecosystems, increasingly threatened by climate change.
The Genius Loci category, dedicated to photographic series describing the relationship between man and landscape saw Noemi Contardi triumph in a touching embrace with her father. The young photographer recounted, through a series of images, her relationship with her parent, one of the last 'muaggià', the master builders of dry stone walls. The photographic sequence, accompanied by a note from the author, was a hymn to the care of the landscape and the strength of family ties. The moment when father and daughter embraced on stage was one of the most touching of the evening.
Second place was awarded to Leonello Bertolucci, who emphasised with an intense black and white the Cinque Terre's landscapes, approached in the manner of the flâneur: different subjects, landscapes, people, artificial elements united by the compositional ability and graphic sense of the shots.
Piero Papa, already a prize-winner in the Naturalia category, took third place in this section too, with a series of photographs that explore the presence of man in the landscape, in a constant dialogue between intervention and nature, with a non-judging gaze, far from the classic 'decisive moments' of photography.
For all the winners, not only cash prizes were up for grabs, but also prizes offered by the territory, the Pro Loco Riomaggiore/Manarola, Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia; the Diving Cinque Terre, Cantina Cooperativa Cinque Terre and Cantina Sassarini/A Scià as well as vouchers to acquire photographic skills with Leica Akademie and Spazi Fotografici.
Closing the evening were the precursor words of Sergio Fregoso, pronounced by his daughter Sara during the awarding of the special mention dedicated to the under-30s to Lorenzo Scaramuccia and of a special jury prize to Davide Crovara, another promise of local photography.
In his notebooks from the 1970s, Sergio Fregoso, an assiduous visitor to the Cinque Terre, noted: 'The Cinque Terre are a gift from nature. They are a work of genius, a product of labour that has been able to wrest from nature the conditions favourable to a culture of survival. Ancient farming knowledge and an active presence in the territory have ensured balance in the complex relationship between nature and culture. Today this is no longer enough. Nature is taking back what was taken from it. Changing environmental and socio-cultural conditions - tourism, abandonment of fields, landslides and degradation - have required a 'second' work of genius, which is maturing with the collaboration of 'other' knowledge, because the problems are no longer 'local' and the changes affect small and large communities alike.
Special thanks to the jury composed of Donatella Bianchi, journalist and former President of the Cinque Terre National Park; Gilberto Benni, Head of Leica Classic Italy and of Leica Akademie Italy; Ottavio Di Brizzi, editorial director of the Italian Touring Club; Davide Di Gennaro, graphic designer and co-founder of the TomoTomo studio; Sara Fregoso, photographer; Davide Marcesini, photographer and director of Spazi Fotografici; Stanislao de Marsanich, president of I Parchi Letterari Italiani; Alberto Luca Recchi, photographer, writer and underwater explorer; Barbara Verduci, photoeditor of FAI, Fondo Ambiente Italiano.
