This is Aimo, almost 3 years old, in Milano (Italy), photographed with his favorite toys for my Toy Stories project. It's been more than 12 years since I took the first photo for this project /// Toy Stories is an ongoing project; wherever I travel in the world, I take portraits of children with their favorite toys. I've spent more than five years visiting over 60 countries, and I've recorded the spontaneous and genuine joy that unites kids despite their diverse backgrounds. Whether the children own a veritable fleet of miniature cars or a single stuffed monkey, the pride they have is moving, funny, and thought-provoking. #toys #toy #toystories #child #play #playing @luca_adami87 @ssheena_official

I took this picture exactly 4 years ago. It was one of the first photos I shot for my project THE AMERIGUNS, made with the help of @natgeo. These photos of mine depicted an aspect of American society and the close relationship it has with firearms. A relationship that in the last years has become even more solidified. Gun sales have increased exponentially during the past 3 years / THE AMERIGUNS - Of the all the firearms owned by private citizens for non-military purposes in the world, more than 40% are in the USA. Their number exceed that of the country’s population: about 400 to 328 million. In proportion, that’s more than one hundred twenty for each hundred; more than one per person. I have traveled in every corner of the United States to meet proud gun owners, and I has asked them to show all the firearms they keep at home. I shot portraits of people and guns in their homes and neighborhoods - This is Kitija, 29 – Honolulu, Hawaii. Kitija owns the biggest firing range in the Hawaiian Islands. She owns it with her stepfather. It was he who instilled in her a passion for firearms. She was 10 at the time. “I used to watch Hollywood movies. Like any kid, I wanted to learn more about what I saw, so my father would take me hunting with him, up in the mountains. People hunt a lot around here. There are deer and pigs—it's a rich land. That’s when I started shooting.” Her stepfather has also made it possible for her to amass one of the largest collection of firearms on the island, consisting largely of antiques. He buys them for himself and, when he gets tired of them, he passes them on to her. “As for me, I could never get tired of having new guns,” she says. “I want to own all of the wonderful ones I see here at the firing range. If I’m lucky, in another ten years I’ll have at least 100 guns.” Kitija has two great passions, firearms and the ocean. She dreams of making scuba diving into a career, but also of becoming a markswoman at a competitive level. At the moment, however, her everyday commitment is to change the way people think, given that, where she lives, they’re especially sceptical about firearms. #guns #2ndamendment #usa #firearms

Not even 24 hours ago yet another massacre took place in the United States. A young girl walked into school and killed several people with a firearm, one of more than 400 million legal guns in American hands. My latest project THE AMERIGUNS explores and investigates the deeper aspects of the love-hate relationship Americans have with firearms. I was interviewed by @zdizoro on his @welikeduel show and we talked about my photos and what I learned during my trip to the USA. #usa #ameriguns #guns #massshooting #america #firearms #2ndamendment

World Water Day, March 22nd - Summer 2022 was the driest ever in Italy, or at least since man has been able to measure this data. Most of Italy's reservoirs, lakes and rivers have reached their lowest peak ever and in some cases have dried up completely. Together with the @acquanellenostremani team and Finish, I created the first GUIDA AI DESERTI D’ITALIA (Italian Deserts Guide) in collaboration with my colleague @camilla_miliani. A journey to discover these places, certainly fascinating to see, but which Italy would not need. These photos are taken from the guide and were taken throughout Italy. These places that become a symbol of a cry of alarm and a demonstration of how climate change is putting our planet and the lives of everyone and everything that lives on it at risk. This guide is perhaps a provocation, but it is necessary to bring to the eyes of most people a problem that is running faster than expected and that absolutely must be stopped and reversed. There are big gestures that countries must make to reverse this trend of desertification and these gestures are in the hands of our governments, but there are also small gestures that we can all do in our homes, in everyday life: let's save water! We must use what is really necessary for us. Thanks to @_filmax_ @giorgiotur @claudiobee @scottspadaro for having conceived and worked together on this project. #water #desert #deserto #italia #italy #waterday #worldwaterday

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN DAY - A few years ago I had the fantastic opportunity to travel the world for work for over two years. I visited more than 50 countries. When I left Italy for this long journey, my grandmother had a huge concern: who would take care of my meals? What would I eat around the world? At that moment I promised my grandmother that in every country I would visit from then on, I would look for a grandmother, like her, and ask her to cook me her best dish to take care of me. Since that time I have met about 100 of them, on all continents. I have cooked with each of them, learning their best recipes, the ones they use to take care of their grandchildren. I photographed these wonderful women with all the fresh ingredients they needed, then photographed the finished dish and wrote down the recipe. All of this then became my most successful book, IN HER KITCHEN. Thank you grandma for this unintentional suggestion, thank you grandmothers everywhere, thank you women - to see more of this project, read the stories of these grandmothers and their recipes: link in bio #grandma #food #recipe #women #imternationalwomensday

Yet another tragedy at sea took place a few hours ago. A boat with about two hundred migrants sank a few dozen meters off the coast of Calabria. Most of them are dead, including children. It would have been possible to save them all, but rules, politics, orders prevented it. it is a shameful thing, for politics, for my country, for all of Europe. We are forgetting that we are human. These people are running away from inhumane lives, trying to reach our country with the hope of finally being able to live a life that has the meaning to be called such. As a photographer and journalist, I have tackled this difficult subject only once, and I have tried to photograph the possible future of these people, what they dream of and what it would be right for them to have. - WORKING CLASS HEROES: Do migrants have a past? Do migrants have a future? Or are they forever locked in the images of man on sinking boats, of women, babies in their arms, crawling under barbwire, of families waiting in line, stranded in the shadow of borders we thought had forever vanished? I have tried to see things differently. I have learned that these men and women actually had a job where they come from and dream of being able to work in Europe. So when I set out to photograph a group of migrants eager to reach Switzerland but blocked in the city of Como, in northern Italy, I decided to show them as they would have liked to be shown. Dembo as a baker, Osman as a bus driver, Noreen as a nurse and Jafar as policeman. These are just some of works they are used to do and skilled in. But Dembo, Osman, Noreen, Jafar and many others are now living in lurid tents, camping out in a small park adjacent to the city’s station in squalid conditions. These photos are their CV’s translated in images. I have borrowed the language of publicity to show what reportage cannot. These photographs are not totally real. But they should be. In order to illustrate the enormous chasm between their present and a possible future I have also done a series of still lifes of where the migrants actually sleep. It’s in the space between these two worlds that the future of Europe will play out. #immigration #europe #hope

Tanzania, somewhere between Ngorongoro and Serengeti. A group of Masai boys.#Tanzania #masai #ngorongoro #africa #kids #serengeti

This is Misha, 3, in Moscow, photographed with his favorite toys for my Toy Stories project. It's been more than 10 years since I took the first photo for this project /// Toy Stories is an ongoing project; wherever I travel in the world, I take portraits of children with their favorite toys. I've spent more than five years visiting over 60 countries, and I've recorded the spontaneous and genuine joy that unites kids despite their diverse backgrounds. Whether the children own a veritable fleet of miniature cars or a single stuffed monkey, the pride they have is moving, funny, and thought-provoking. #toys #toy #toystories #child #play #playing

I recently bought some new lights, small LEDs that change color automatically, and the other night we played with them… “A FEW SHADES OF NORMA”! #portrait #portraitphotography #colors #face #shades

Every week I receive at least 2-3 emails from parents who photograph their children inspired by my TOY STORIES project, and I also occasionally get messages from teachers telling me about using my photos to lecture schools. Here, I have to say THANK YOU!!! you always move me. ❤️❤️❤️ I share here some of the photos I received this month. #toystories #toys #love #kids #children

I haven't been sleeping much at night the last few weeks… maybe I should get out and experiment a little more with night photography and my drone-flash. This photo of this acacia plant in the middle of the Serengeti Park is a memory of a beautiful trip I took with a friend to Tanzania a few years ago. #serengeti #tanzania #acacias #nightphotography #dronephotography

Jan. 26, 2020, exactly 3 years ago I took the last photo of my project THE AMERIGUNS, made with the help of @natgeo. These photos of mine depicted an aspect of American society and the close relationship it has with firearms. A relationship that in the last 3 years has become even more solidified. Gun sales have increased exponentially during the pandemic and unfortunately we often read tragic news stories related to the spread of these weapons. /// THE AMERIGUNS - Of the all the firearms owned by private citizens for non-military purposes in the world, more than 40% are in the United States of America. Their number exceed that of the country’s population: about 400 to 328 million. In proportion, that’s more than one hundred twenty for each hundred; more than one per person. I have traveled in every corner of the United States to meet proud gun owners, and I has asked them to show all the firearms they keep at home. I shot portraits of people and guns in their homes and neighborhoods - This is Tracy (25) in Evansville, Indiana Mechanic during the week, fitness instructor and model for calendars and magazines on weekends, gun collector seven days a week. Tracy Whitsell is a girl with a multifaceted life. After she quit her criminology studies, she got a job repairing buses for the Evansville School Corporation. Her earnings she puts towards firearms, a passion she’s nurtured since childhood. Her father taught her how to shoot when she was 11. There were a lot of guns in the house and he wanted Tracy and her sister to be able to handle them safely. “I figured out what I enjoyed pretty quickly. In high school I started shooting competitively. It became a hobby.” Gun magazines often call her in to model for articles. When she’s not busy posing with one of her antique handguns (she has a modest collection, inherited in part from her family), she’s taking part in fitness competitions. She is opposed to any laws that would restrict gun rights. “I don't believe there are groups of people who shouldn’t have them. Neither do I believe that there are types of weapons that people shouldn’t be allowed to have”. #ameriguns #guns #usa