Davide Sartori Wins Young Italian Photography Prize with Father-Son Exploration at Triennale Milano

The 12th edition of Giovane Fotografia Italiana | Premio Luigi Ghirri, themed 'Unire/Bridging', awarded Davide Sartori for his series 'The Shape of Our Eyes, Other Things I Wouldn’t Know'. The work was first presented in April at the Festival di Fotografia Europea in Reggio Emilia and is now on view at Triennale Milano in a solo exhibition curated by Ilaria Campioli, Daniele De Luigi, and Damiano Gullì. Born in Italy in 1995, Sartori graduated in photography from the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague and lives in the Netherlands. His project investigates the relationship between father and son, stemming from personal experience: Sartori long saw his father as a stranger, then learned of his grandfather's premature death when his father was coming of age, forcing him into the same career path. Recognizing a shared absence of a traditional paternal model, Sartori visited his father's workplace and invited him into his studio. The series uses photography not to document family history but to activate relational space, capturing attempts at connection through exchanged roles and contexts. The images register possibilities, hesitations, and openings in an ongoing dialogue. In a cultural moment where photography's truthfulness is debated, Sartori shifts focus from object to subject, seeking what lies outside the frame: 'the shape of our eyes', the human trait that unites beyond individual perspectives.