14/07/2026
THE MOUNTAINS AS A PHOTOGRAPHIC RESEARCH LABORATORY: THE NEW TALENTS OF THE LAGAZUOI PHOTO AWARD CLIMB TO THE TOP
Selected from over forty candidates, four young photographers transform the Lagazuoi Expo Dolomiti into a research laboratory. Their projects, which focus on the analysis and observation of the mountain ecosystem, will be on display on display from 12 September.
Cortina d'Ampezzo, 14 July 2026 _ The Lagazuoi Photo Award New Talents, the Lagazuoi Expo Dolomiti project dedicated to the young talents of contemporary photography, which for 2026 has received as many as 42 applications, a figure that confirms the constant growth of an initiative which, year after year, is establishing itself as one of the most interesting training courses training courses dedicated to young artists.
The Lagazuoi Photo Award New Talents is aimed at students and young artists from the main Italian schools of photography such as the IED in Rome, the Officine Fotografiche Roma, the Istituto Italiano di Fotografia in Milan and the CFP Bauer in Milan, and they are invited to apply by submitting a personal photographic project. The submissions are evaluated by a jury of industry professionals who select the four most deserving works. The chosen artists thus gain access to an artistic residency residency at the Lagazuoi Expo Dolomiti, during which, supported by tutors, they develop a new original project dedicated to the mountains.
The works created are then presented in the exhibition that will be inaugurated on 12 September, again at the Lagazuoi Expo Dolomiti and can be visited until 18 October 2026, when the the winner of this sixth edition of the award will also be announced.
The four selected photographers have already arrived Cortina d'Ampezzo yesterday, 13 July, to begin five days of work between the Lagazuoi, Cortina d'Ampezzo and Alta Badia. The residence represents the heart of the project: an immersive experience that offers participants the opportunity to engage with the landscape, history and the identity of the Dolomites, transforming the observation of the territory into a new photographic narrative.
The 2026 edition is in collaboration with IED – Istituto Europeo di Design in Rome, Officine Fotografiche Roma, Istituto Italiano di Fotografia in Milan and CFP Bauer Milano. From the applications submitted, the jury selected Leonardo Bandini (IED Rome), Francesca Formisano (Officine Fotografiche Roma), Ronny Pozzato (Istituto Italiano di Fotografia di Milano) and Alessio Orlando (CFP Bauer of Milan), as the protagonists of the artistic residency in the Dolomites.
The role of the tutors is fundamental in this process, as they accompany them during these days of study and creation until the realisation of their original projects. Nicolò Faccenda, art historian and scientific consultant for festivals and exhibitions, curates exhibitions of emerging and established talents in Trentino-Alto Adige. He covers a wide range of contemporary languages, from painting to street art, to photography and performance. Guido Samuel Frieri, for whom photography is a means of documenting lives on the margins, explores through his lens humanly difficult realities, revealing a beauty made of courage and restoring a proud dignity to those who refuse to give in. Roberto Mascellani, an amateur photographer specialising in street photography, portraits and audiovisuals, passionate about post-production, with a wealth of experience as a tutor in photography courses.
Conceived by the Lagazuoi Expo Dolomiti, the Lagazuoi Photo Award New Talents was created with the aim of offering young photographers, each with a very different language, although united by the ability to interpret the contemporary world with their art, an opportunity for professional and artistic growth through an immersive experience that brings together photography, the local area and research. The mountains thus become a creative workshop, a place to observe, experiment and build new visual narratives capable of interpreting the present with a contemporary perspective.
Stefano Illing, creator of the Lagazuoi Expo Dolomiti, comments: "The Lagazuoi Photo Award New Talents was created to offer young photographers not just an exhibition opportunity, but above all an experience of growth. We believe that direct contact with the mountains, with their rhythms and their spaces, can stimulate new languages and new forms of storytelling. Every year we witness the creation of surprising projects, capable of interpreting the territory with sensitivity and from new points of view. This is the most value of our project."
The four photographers selected by the jury to enjoy the artist experience on Lagazuoi have distinguished themselves thanks to projects capable of expressing the vitality of contemporary photography and the attitude of the new generations to address social, cultural and environmental issues through original and personal languages. With "FIUME;", Leonardo Bandini (IED Rome) tackles one of the most complex issues of the contemporary world: youth suicide. The starting point is a place truly marked by a tragedy, the Marconi Bridge, which becomes the centre of a broader reflection on psychological distress and the importance of prevention. Through symbols, words and references to counselling services, the project invites us not to look away from a reality that is often difficult to face, transforming photography into a tool for raising social awareness. On the other hand, Francesca Formisano's project is more intimate (Officine Fotografiche Roma) is more intimate. With "Le crepe sono per l'oro", the author recounts her relationship with her mother through a journey made up of black and white images, black and white, silences and shared memories. It is a work that is still open, which arises from a personal experience but speaks to everyone: photography becomes a space in which fragility, distance and the desire to recognise oneself finally find finally find a meeting point. Alessio Orlando (CFP Bauer in Milan) focuses his research on the the construction sites of the Milan-Cortina 2026 Olympics with the project Piano_promozionale_Milano. Observing the large renders covering the fences of the works, the author questions the relationship between what we see and what we are told. His images, apparently computer-generated, are in actually reworked photographs that reflect on the way we construct the image of the city and the contemporary landscape today.
Ronny Pozzato (Istituto Italiano di Fotografia Milano) explores the relationship between photography, graphics and visual experimentation with a project called Metamorphosis. Starting from the suggestions of M.C. Escher's works, he constructs images in which the mountains lose their original form and are transformed into animal figures, figures, through a play of collages, cut-outs and digital reworkings. A work that invites us to look at the landscape not as something immobile, but as a space in constant transformation, where reality and imagination end up overlapping.
Through the artist residency on the Lagazuoi, it will be the confrontation with the Dolomite landscape that will give rise to a new photographic production: at the end of the creative stay, each artist will present an original project, the result of their relationship with a territory that, due to its evocative power and complexity, continues to inspire new narratives and ever-new research perspectives.
The Lagazuoi Photo Award New Talents thus confirms its vocation to support the growth of young artists, offering them a context for research, curatorial discussion and artistic experimentation. A project that over the years has been able to consolidate and expand its network of collaborations, helping to build an ever-closer dialogue between contemporary photography and mountain culture.
The contest is supported by: IED – Istituto Europeo di Design in Rome, Officine Fotografiche Roma, Istituto Italiano di Fotografia in Milan and CFP Bauer Milano.
The 2026 edition confirms the collaboration with BAW – Bolzano Art Weeks, the collective, plural and inclusive festival created with the aim of providing a shared physical and temporal context for the multifaceted South Tyrolean art scene. It is also enriched by the contribution of the cultural association Terzo Tropico APS cultural association of Bologna, an organisation that uses photography and video as tools for communication and dissemination on social and environmental issues, and is active in the creation of exhibitions, documentary projects, workshops and festivals.
The project is carried out with the support of BPER Banca Private Cesare Ponti.
