The young photographer Piero Martinello won the LUZ Fellowship 2012, thank to his work “Il libro dei radicali”. LUZ goes on with the policy of investment on young italian talents, despite the crisis situation. Piero Martinello, 25 years old, professionally grew at Fabrica, receives in reward for winning, a budget of 10,000 thousand euros to realize in 2013 his project, that he describes as following: “Il libro dei radicali" is an anthropological journey across Italy, those who have decided to make a radical choice, who have been obliged of making these choices.

A journey that spread from the reclusion in a monastery of Clarisse to the bolt-hole of the Casalesi’s clan boss, from illegal rave party to devotion to Saint Gemma, from the friulian village idiot , to whom have inherited the physiognomy of the women told by Piero della Francesca. A path starting from the cultural italian root, makes one think about modern topics such as the need of isolation, of escape, of return or rediscovery. In this exact historical moment, when our country was subjected to a cultural genocide, a dark period of decay of custom, of thinking and politic.

Devotion, Subversion, Deviance, Escape, Seduction: these are the book’s chapter that is set as a concept album ( a unique topic, around which it has developed a story, with also some breaks) and includes a series of black and white photos, archive’s pictures, passport photos, grafic composition and interviews.

The jury, made by Andrea Monti (Director of Gazzetta dello sport), Federico Pepe (Art Director of BBDO agency), Francesco Jodice (photographer), Angela Madesani (curator and teacher of photography’s history), Renata Ferri (Photo editor of Io Donna and Amica) and Alberto Giuliani (partner LUZ) has also awarded the honorable mentions to Nicola Lo Calzo, for the work Cham, and to Filippo Romano, for the work Slumsiders.

The other photographers that took part to the LUZ fellowship were Diana Bagnoli, Fabio Bucciarelli, Lorenzo Castore, Federico Ciamei, James Whitlow Delano, Andrea Frazzetta, Ziyah Gafic, Alessandro Grassani, Massimo Mastrorillo and Simone Perolari.

Paul Melcher