We are on a mission to discover new photographers, and the most pictorial and interesting photo stories out there. SPOTLIGHT / EMMA VARGA London UNITED KINGDOM AARON RUBINO ABBIE BRIGGS ABDULLA SHINOSE CK ABHAY PATEL ABHISHEK SINGH ADAM SINCLAIR ADESH GAUR ADRIAN PELEGRIN ADRIAN TAN ADRIAN WHEAR AGATA LO MONACO AHMET HOJAMYRADOV AJ BERNSTEIN ALAN THEXTON ALEJANDRO DAVILA ALESSANDRO GIUGNI ALEX FRAYNE ALEX GOTTFRIED BONDER ALEX RUTHERFORD ALEXANDRA AVLONITIS ALEXANDROS ZILOS ALEXEY STRECHEN ALICIA HABER AMY HOROWITZ AMY NEWTON McCONNEL GET ON THE LIST © John St.

Presenting the work of visual storytellers from around the world. ARE THOSE WINDS Along Istanbul’s northern edge, Ci Demi photographs the last water buffalo herders as they keep working, remembering, and staying put while the city closes in. PICTORIAL STORY ARE THOSE WINDS Along Istanbul’s northern edge, Ci Demi photographs the last water buffalo herders as they keep working, remembering, and staying put while the city closes in. PICTORIAL STORY COLORS OF HÜZÜN Through fragments and gestures, Pedro Vidal traces Istanbul as shared melancholy lingers in everyday life, the city unfolding slowly and refusing to settle into a single, definitive understanding. PICTORIAL STORY OUT OF PLAY An exploration of abandoned interiors in which Marco Lugli examines how objects, light, and space carry memory beyond human presence, establishing absence as a condition of material continuity rather than loss. PICTORIAL STORY REIMAGINING TALIESIN Form gives way to flux in Amy Newton-McConnel’s photographs, where architecture unfolds as a field of shifting relations and perception moves with light, geometry, and time. PICTORIAL STORY WHERE THE MUSIC BEGINS Before the strings, Jeevan Akash Jayavarthanan leaves the movement of the street for the rhythm of the workshop, where time holds, hands work, and each moment forms what will later be heard. PICTORIAL STORY LAND, LABOR, AND THE GOLDEN FIBER In West Bengal’s jute fields, Rajesh Dhar examines the systems of land and labor, tracing how a single material sustains communities and informs a changing ecological future. PICTORIAL STORY WITH GRATITUDE AND DEVOTION A quiet and intimate account of devotion in Zaraza, Venezuela, Rafael Ayala Páez reflects on faith, memory, and community through photographs and words that honor the enduring power of small gestures. PICTORIAL STORY SILVER AND BREATH Within this fragile space between looking and being seen, Eva Christina Nielsen has developed a practice that is both restrained and deeply attentive. PICTORIAL STORY RUPTURE REPAIR REMNANT In this reflection on rupture, Donna Bassin invites us to consider how grief settles into the body and the image, and how the slow work of witnessing becomes a form of repair. PICTORIAL STORY DELTA DUSK John Agather weaves image and text into a single current, tracing how music, memory, and daily life continue to move through the Mississippi Delta. PICTORIAL STORY SILENT BEAUTY Tamara Quadrelli photographs the world by slowing down inside it. There is no rush to explain what we are seeing. The pleasure comes from staying with it. PICTORIAL STORY SOLITUDE UNDER A TECHNIFIED SUN Tracing the space between movement and stillness, Héctor Morón reveals a city that persists as human presence slips by. PICTORIAL STORY 4320 MINUTES WITHOUT COLOR Moving between photography and narration, Mohammed Nahi traces a period in which sight could no longer be assumed as reliable, and attention shifted toward memory and duration. PICTORIAL STORY THE PAINTED VILLAGE OF LABANDHAR Anjan Ghosh’s photographs carry us to Labandhar, where painting becomes language, tradition stays present, and art grows through shared ground. PICTORIAL STORY ORDINARY GRIEF What endures when everything else is uncertain? Through photography, Parisa Azadi asks us to see Iran not as story, but as feeling. PICTORIAL STORY THE EVERYMAN Eva Mallis uncovers the quiet strength of overlooked lives, capturing everyday encounters in Mumbai’s industrial districts as intimate portraits of labor and resilience. PICTORIAL STORY IN BETWEEN LIFE AND AFTER In Cairo’s City of the Dead, families carve out ordinary lives among centuries of tombs — Paola Ferrarotti traces the fragile line between memory and survival. PICTORIAL STORY UNFIGURED Nasos Karabelas transforms the human body into a site of emotional flux — where perception fractures and inner states become visible form. PICTORIAL STORY VISIONS OF ICELAND FROM ABOVE Massimo Lupidi takes flight above Iceland — capturing nature’s abstract brushstrokes where land, water, and sky blur into poetic visions beyond the ordinary eye. PICTORIAL STORY UNDER THE CLOUDS Giordano Simoncini presents a visual ethnography of the interconnectedness of indigenous cosmology, material life, and the ecological balance within the Quechua communities of the Peruvian Andes. PICTORIAL STORY NYC SUBWAY RIDERS BEFORE THE INVASION OF SMARTPHONES Hiroyuki Ito’s subway photographs reveal a vanished intimacy — strangers lost in thought in a world before digital distractions took hold. PICTORIAL STORY THE GHOST SELF Buku Sarkar stages her refusal to vanish. Her photographs are unflinching, lyrical acts of documentation, mapping a body in flux and a mind grappling with the epistemic dissonance of chronic illness. PICTORIAL STORY WHISPERS On Mother’s Day, Regina Melo's story asks us to pause. To remember. To feel. It honors the profound, often quiet sacrifices that mothers make, and the invisible threads that bind us to them. PICTORIAL STORY BEYOND THE MASK By stepping beyond the scripted world of professional wrestling and into the raw terrain of mental health, Matteo Bergami and Fabio Giarratano challenge long-held myths about masculinity, endurance, and heroism. PICTORIAL STORY FRAGMENTS OF TIME Each of jfk's diptychs functions as a microcosm of the city, allowing viewers to experience urban life as constant fragmented glimpses, mirroring the unpredictable nature of human interactions.

SHUBHODEEP ROY My work explores human dignity, migration, labour, faith, and climate vulnerability, with a strong sense of social responsibility. I work closely with communities facing displacement and economic precarity, often through long-term, immersive storytelling. My project The Migrant Workers of India received international recognition for its portrayal of migrant labourers during the COVID-19 crisis. I am currently working on my long-term project Varanasi: Celebration of Life and Death. At 24, I have participated in nearly 50 international exhibitions. My work has been shown at United Nations conferences, the European Union, photo festivals, and global events, and has received more than 22 international awards. My photographs have been published worldwide, and I am currently a foreign correspondent for Progressive Street in Italy. LOCATION Kolkata INDIA CAMERA/S Nikon D5600 @SHUBHODEEPROY.IN

DAVIDE SANTANGELO I am a photographer and cultural practitioner working at the intersection of intimate storytelling, social inquiry, and care. My practice is shaped by my work as a social and healthcare worker, which has deepened my attention to human experience, vulnerability, and the lives often kept at the margins of visibility. In 2010, I co-founded La Locomotiva Cinema e Musica, a cultural association that has hosted hundreds of events and artists. Within this space, I created a photography group that allowed me to develop my visual language and engage more deeply with photographic projects. My work transforms personal experience into wider reflection. Projects such as Discesa e Risalita and Il viso di mia madre explore dyslexia, illness, vulnerability, and resilience. I currently work with Nesti in Paternò, leading photography and videography workshops in schools. LOCATION Catania ITALY CAMERA/S Nikon D610 @DAVID_SANT_FOTO

Be inspired by the photographers on the 2021 List. 2021 PHOTOGRAPHERS © Meryl Meisler AGATA LO MONACO ITALY ALAN THEXTON Melbourne AUSTRALIA ALEX RUTHERFORD Surrey UNITED KINGDOM ANDRES GONZALEZ Porto PORTUGAL ANDREW ROVENKO Melbourne AUSTRALIA ANDRÉ LOBÃO London UNITED KINGDOM AURÉLIEN BOMY Nantes FRANCE BARRY BOTTOMLEY London UNITED KINGDOM BASTIAN PETER Basel SWITZERLAND BEN ALLAN London UNITED KINGDOM BETTY MANOUSOS Athens GREECE CAMILLE WHEELER Texas USA CARLA HENOUD Beirut LEBANON CAROL DRONSFIELD New York UNITED STATES CHICHEK BAYRAMLY Baku AZERBAIJAN CHRISTINA SIMONS Melbourne AUSTRALIA DAMIEN GORET FRANCE DANIEL GOLDENBERG Buenos Aires ARGENTINA DANIELA PEREIRA Montevideo URUGUAY DANNY JACKSON Essex UNITED KINGDOM DAVID KUGELMAS New York UNITED STATES DAVID LAWLESS Winnipeg CANADA DAVID SHORTLAND London UNITED KINGDOM DREW KELLEY California USA EDUARDO ORTIZ Valparaiso CHILE

Be inspired by the photographers on the 2022 List. 2022 PHOTOGRAPHERS © Adrian Pelegrin ADRIAN PELEGRIN Playa del Carmen MEXICO AHSANUL HAQUE FAHIM Dhaka, BANGLADESH AJ BERNSTEIN New York UNITED STATES ANWAR EHTESHAM Dhaka BANGLADESH ASEN GEORGIEV Sofia BULGARIA ASLI GONEN Eskisehir TURKEY BRIAN DOUGLAS Ontario CANADA CAHLEEN HUDSON New Taipei City TAIWAN CHETAN VERMA Gurgaon INDIA DEAN GOLDBERG New York UNITED STATES ELIZABETH PAOLETTI UNITED STATES EMIR SEVIM Istanbul TURKEY EMY MAIKE Baden Württemberg GERMANY FRANCESCA TIBONI Cagliari ITALY GABRIEL MIELES GUZMÁN Guayaquil ECUADOR GABRIELE GENTILE Parma ITALY GIANLUCA MORTAROTTI London UNITED KINGDOM GIORGIO GERARDI Venice ITALY JAN ENKELMANN London UNITED KINGDOM JEAN ROSS New York UNITED STATES JELISA PETERSON Texas UNITED STATES JENS F. KRUSE Mallorca SPAIN JONAS WELTEN Salzburg AUSTRIA LAINE MULLALLY Stockholm SWEDEN LELE BISSOLI Vercelli ITALY

Be inspired by the photographers on the 2025 List. 2025 PHOTOGRAPHERS © Stephanie Duprie Routh ABDULLA SHINOSE CK Malabar INDIA ALEJANDRO DAVILA Pachuca MEXICO ANTON BOU Montreal CANADA AYANAVA SIL Kolkata INDIA BETTY GOH SINGAPORE BUKU SARKAR Paris FRANCE CYNTHIA KARALLA New York UNITED STATES DAVID GRAY New York UNITED STATES EVA MALLIS New York UNITED STATES FANJA HUBERS Utrecht THE NETHERLANDS FUTURE HACKNEY London UNITED KINGDOM GIORDANO SIMONCINI Rome ITALY GUILLERMO FRANCO Córdoba ARGENTINA HIROYUKI ITO New York UNITED STATES JAY HSU Yilan City TAIWAN KAT PUCHOWSKA Barcelona SPAIN LAETITIA HEISLER Berlin GERMANY LUISA MONTAGNA Parma ITALY MASSIMO LUPIDI ITALY MATTEO BERGAMI Bologna ITALY MEERA NERURKAR Düsseldorf GERMANY NASOS KARABELAS Greece ATHENS NICOLA CAPPELLARI Vicenza ITALY PARISA AZADI IRAN & DUBAI PARVATHI KUMAR New Jersey UNITED STATES

Be inspired by the photographers on the 2023 List. 2023 PHOTOGRAPHERS © Ypatia Kornarou AARON RUBINO San Francisco UNITED STATES ALESSANDRO GIUGNI Milan ITALY ALEX GOTTFRIED BONDER Buenos Aires, ARGENTINA AMY NEWTON McCONNEL Arizona UNITED STATES ANASTASIYA PENTYUKHINA Moscow RUSSIA ANDREE THORPE Ontario CANADA BARBARA PEACOCK Portland UNITED STATES BRANDEN MAY Atlanta, UNITED STATES DARREN SACKS London UNITED KINGDOM DOUG WINTER California UNITED STATES ELSA ARRAIS Leiria PORTUGAL FABIO CATANZARO Venice ITALY GILES ISBELL Chiang Mai, THAILAND IDA DI PASQUALE Rome ITALY JAN PONNET Antwerp BELGIUM JAYESH KUMAR SHARMA Varanasi INDIA JEFF ROTHSTEIN New York UNITED STATES JUAN BARTE Madrid SPAIN JUAN SOSTRE California UNITED STATES KONRAD HELLFEUER Görlitz GERMANY LEANNE STAPLES New York UNITED STATES MENA SAMBIASI Madrid SPAIN MONIKA JURGA POLAND NAIMA HALL New York UNITED STATES NSIRIES Bologna ITALY

Be inspired by the photographers on the 2020 List. 2020 PHOTOGRAPHERS © Abbie Briggs ABBIE BRIGGS Wisconsin USA ABHAY PATEL Delhi INDIA ABHISHEK SINGH New Delhi INDIA ADAM SINCLAIR Melbourne AUSTRALIA ADESH GAUR Uttar Pradesh INDIA ADRIAN TAN SINGAPORE ADRIAN WHEAR Melbourne AUSTRALIA AHMET HOJAMYRADOV Minsk BELARUS ALEX FRAYNE Adelaide AUSTRALIA ALEXANDRA AVLONITIS New York ALEXEY STRECHEN RUSSIA ALICIA HABER Montevideo URAGUAY ANEEKA MANKU England UNITED KINGDOM ANGEL CARNICER Zaragoza SPAIN ANNA MARCHIOLI FRANCE ANNETTE LANG Nice FRANCE ANTONIS GIAKOUMAKIS Athens GREECE ANWAR SADAT Nairobi KENYA ARTURO CAÑEDO Lima PERU ASHISH PATEL Delhi INDIA ASSIA STARKE RUSSIA/AUSTRIA ASTRID NEUNDLINGER Vienna AUSTRIA B JANE LEVINE New York USA BELINDA CORNEY London UNITED KINGDOM BENNY VAN DEN BULKE BELGIUM

Be inspired by the photographers on the 2024 List. 2024 PHOTOGRAPHERS © Anna Tut ALEXANDROS ZILOS Athens GREECE AMY HOROWITZ New York UNITED STATES ANA-MARIA ALB Bukovina ROMANIA ANN PETRUCKEVITCH UNITED KINGDOM ANNA TUT Krasnogorsk City RUSSIA CARMEN SOLANA CIRES Madrid SPAIN CATIA MONTAGNA SCOTLAND/ITALY DASHA DARVAJ UMRIGAR Karachi PAKISTAN DEDIPYA BASAK Kolkata INDIA EDWIN CARUNGAY San Francisco UNITED STATES FRANCE LECLERC Chicago UNITED STATES ISABELLE COORDES Münster GERMANY JOHN KAYACAN Los Angeles UNITED STATES JUSTINE GEORGET Lyon FRANCE MARIETTE PATHY ALLEN New York UNITED STATES MATTHIAS GÖDDE Beckum GERMANY MEI SEVA New York UNITED STATES MIA DEPAOLA Washington D.C UNITED STATES NAZANIN DAVARI Tehran IRAN PAUL COOKLIN UNITED KINGDOM PEDRO VIDAL Barcelona SPAIN RAFA ROJAS São Paulo BRAZIL ROMAIN COUDRIER Marseille FRANCE ROWELL B. TIMOTEO La Union PHILIPPINES SASHA IVANOV St. Petersburg RUSSIA

Talking to photographers from around the world, offering an insight into their photographic journey to inspire us all. WITH EYES THAT LISTEN AND A HEART THAT SEES For decades, Rivka Shifman Katvan has documented the unseen backstage world of Broadway, capturing authenticity where performance and humanity intersect. INTERVIEW THE VILLAGE A workers’ neighbourhood becomes a living archive as Virginia Cassano photographs the people, streets, and memories that continue to shape Villaggio Piaggio. INTERVIEW MUTABLE MORPHOGENESIS By merging scientific methodologies with photographic experimentation, Emma Varga creates images that challenge fixed distinctions between human and non-human, visible and invisible. INTERVIEW THE ARCHITECTURE OF CONSCIOUSNESS Chad Coombs’ Polaroids are small psychological scenes where identity, memory, culture, and belief push against each other. INTERVIEW WHERE WE BELONG Community storytelling lies at the heart of The Pictorial List’s mission, and Marlon Ramos’ photographs reflects the spirit of the place we now call home. INTERVIEW GUIDED BY A WHISPER Guided by reflection and the quiet presence of art history, Isolda Fabregat Sanz makes photographs that resist certainty and invite the viewer to remain inside the act of looking. INTERVIEW WHAT REMAINS, WHAT EMERGES Laetitia Heisler transforms risk, memory, and the body into layered analogue visions — feminist rituals of seeing that reveal what endures, and what quietly emerges beyond visibility. INTERVIEW WHAT WE ARE, WHAT WE DO Culture lives where art and community meet, and in this space Alejandro Dávila’s photographs reveal the unseen labor and devotion that sustain creation. INTERVIEW ANALOGICAL LIMBO Nicola Cappellari reminds us that the photograph’s power lies not in what it shows, but in what it leaves unsaid. INTERVIEW THREADS OF MOROCCAN LIFE Through gestures of work and moments of community, Kat Puchowska reveals Morocco’s overlooked beauty. INTERVIEW IT STARTED AS LIGHT…ENDED IN SHIVERS… Between intimacy and estrangement, Anton Bou’s photographs wander — restless fragments of light and shadow, mapping the fragile terrain where self unravels into sensation. INTERVIEW WITH EYES THAT LISTEN AND A HEART THAT SEES For decades, Rivka Shifman Katvan has documented the unseen backstage world of Broadway, capturing authenticity where performance and humanity intersect. INTERVIEW DIPTYCH DIALOGUES Through the beautiful language of diptychs, Taiwanese photographer Jay Hsu invites us into a world where quiet images speak of memory, resilience, and hope. INTERVIEW UNKNOWN ABYSSINIA In Ethiopia, Sebastian Piatek found a new way of seeing — where architecture endures, but women in motion carry the narrative forward. INTERVIEW THE PULSE OF THE STREET Moments vanish, yet Suvam Saha holds them still — the pulse of India’s streets captured in fragments of life that will never repeat. INTERVIEW WHAT DO WE WANT? More than documentation, David Gray reveals the human pulse of resistance and asks us to see beyond the surface of unrest. INTERVIEW CRACKED RIBS 2016 Cynthia Karalla opens up about the art of survival, the power of perspective, and why she believes each of us holds a monopoly on our own narrative. INTERVIEW STREETS OF KOLKATA Ayanava Sil’s reveals Kolkata’s soul, capturing moments with empathy, presence and humility while offering deep insight into both city and self. INTERVIEW PERIPHERAL PLACES A project by Catia Montagna that distills fleeting encounters and spatial poetics into triptychs - visual short stories that capture the in-between, where meaning often hides. INTERVIEW POINTE-AU-CHIEN IS NOT DEAD Through Wayan Barre’s documentary, we are invited not only to see but to feel the lived realities of a community standing at the crossroads of environmental collapse and cultural survival. INTERVIEW QUEER HAPPENED HERE Author Marc Zinaman sheds light on the valuable contributions that LGBTQ+ individuals have made to the cultural and social fabric of New York City. INTERVIEW TRACES OF TIME Marked by an ongoing visual dialogue with time, memory, and impermanence, Zamin Jafarov’s long-term projects highlight the quiet power of observation and the emotional depth of simplicity. INTERVIEW THERE MY LITTLE EYES Guillermo Franco’s book is an exploration of seeing beyond the obvious. His work invites us to embrace patience, curiosity, and the unexpected in a world that often rushes past the details. INTERVIEW VISUAL HEALING BEYOND THE DIAGNOSIS Betty Goh’s photography exemplifies the transformative power of visual storytelling, where personal adversity becomes a canvas for resilience, illuminating the connection between art, healing, and self-reclamation. INTERVIEW EVERYDAY BLACKNESS Parvathi Kumar’s book is a profound tribute to the resilience, and contributions of incredible Black women from all walks of life, making it a vital addition to the conversation around International Women’s Month. INTERVIEW A VOYAGE TO DISCOVERY Fanja Hubers’ journey in photography is one of continuous exploration, balancing documentation with artistic self-reflection.

THE VILLAGE A workers’ neighbourhood becomes a living archive as Virginia Cassano photographs the people, streets, and memories that continue to shape Villaggio Piaggio. THE VILLAGE A workers’ neighbourhood becomes a living archive as Virginia Cassano photographs the people, streets, and memories that continue to shape Villaggio Piaggio. July 5, 2026 INTERVIEW PHOTOGRAPHY Virginia Cassano INTERVIEW Melanie Meggs Facebook X (Twitter) WhatsApp LinkedIn Pinterest Copy link SHARE Some neighborhoods are not simply lived in. They are inherited through stories, families, work, grief, habit, and the memories that continue to shape them. Virginia Cassano enters Villaggio Piaggio from a position of personal inheritance, as the daughter of a factory worker who died too soon. Through this intimate connection, she examines how labor and collective memory remain embedded in the life of a place. The project unfolds in Pontedera, the Tuscan town that adopted Virginia ten years ago. Within it sits Villaggio Piaggio, a neighbourhood built in 1934 for the workers of the Piaggio factory and still physically present yet suspended within its own history. Virginia was born in Bari, where she studied art history and fashion. Art was part of her life from the beginning, shaped in part by her father, whose encouragement became an enduring source of direction. At fifteen, he gave her his Olympus OM10 and enrolled her in an evening photography course. That early gift of a camera still has a quiet influence on this project. For Virginia, photography is not only a medium of looking. It is a way of returning, asking, sensing, and holding what cannot be restored. Since moving to Tuscany, Virginia has described rediscovering the value of time and humanity. In this project, that attention becomes a method. She does not photograph Pontedera as a fixed historical subject. She photographs it as a field of lived memory, where former workers, elderly residents, windows, courtyards, stairwells, benches, smoke, rooms, and streets become part of one emotional structure. The former workers are not symbols of an industrial past. They are witnesses, carriers, and protagonists. These photographs listen to the Villaggio, staying close to the memories, silences, and traces it still carries. Virginia understands that memory is unstable. It moves through silence, gesture, remembered stories, and the body’s response to place. Her black and white images strip the world back to light and shadow. The blur becomes a way of thinking. The darkness becomes a form of care. What emerges is nostalgia with weight, a feeling tied to place, time, and what remains. “For me, it was very important to go beyond a documentary record. That already exists in the books at the Piaggio Museum. During the period when I was merely taking photographic notes, I wondered what the right approach would be to create a different kind of narrative whilst still respecting the historical aspect and the brief given to the collective. I found the answer in family albums – in my own album at home, with photos of my father in his blue overalls on his first day at work, or during the first strike. I sought out the protagonists; I recreated and relived the emotions, the sense of belonging to places and activities, that resilience and survival in the face of change, and the children who studied and moved away, leaving their elderly parents in the same house with their memories.” IN CONVERSATION WITH VIRGINIA CASSANO TPL: At fifteen, your father gave you an Olympus OM10 and enrolled you in an evening photography course. What do you remember about that first encounter with photography? VIRGINIA: I realised straight away that simply ‘clicking’ the shutter button wasn’t enough to take a good photograph, and that with just the basics and a bit of experimentation, I’d only ever produce pretty pictures. It could become a means of creative expression, but I needed to study the great masters of the past and look at a lot of contemporary photography to stimulate the process, starting to ask myself the right questions, in the complete naivety of youth. With the awareness I have today, I take photographs whilst asking myself why I take them, what stories I want to tell and, above all, why. I’m no longer interested in whether the photos are beautiful, but whether they work, whether they strike a chord and whether they are consistent with my artistic language. TPL: You studied art history and fashion before committing more fully to photography. How have those earlier studies shaped the way you compose, observe, and build atmosphere in your images? VIRGINIA: I am convinced that photography requires a culture of its own – not necessarily an artistic one – because it encourages the development of one’s own way of thinking, stimulates a certain curiosity about the world’s objects and stories, and fosters an aptitude for framing situations. Studying the history of art and fashion has taught me to appreciate ‘beauty’ in terms of composition and the way light falls on bodies and within spaces. In search of a harmony that the eye recognises and finds satisfying. TPL: You describe Pontedera as the Tuscan town that adopted you ten years ago. What did you first notice about the place, and when did it begin to feel photographically important to you? How did your father’s memory shape the emotional direction of this project? VIRGINIA: It all began when my mentor and teacher, the photographer Fabio Moscatelli, invited me to join a collective project to portray the suburbs, moving away from the usual clichéd narrative of decay, drug dealing and hardship on the city’s outskirts. Every photographer across the country was asked to portray a specific area in a wholly personal and unconventional way. It was then that I began to look at my city with fresh eyes, discovering the boundary walls of a working-class neighbourhood behind the Piaggio factory, where the legendary Vespa is produced. In the post-war period, it was a privilege to live within the ‘Villaggio’; today, it is a suburb in the city centre, with new families of immigrants who inhabit, bring life to and keep the neighbourhood and its amenities alive. I lost my father far too soon, but I remember his routine at the factory and his shifts. I sought out those memories in the lives of retired factory workers, imagining that this might have been my family’s life. The details of their homes, their daily lives and their stories moved me deeply, and I let myself be guided by this, capturing images that felt like ‘déjà vu’. © Virginia Cassano, The Village © Virginia Cassano, The Village © Virginia Cassano, The Village © Virginia Cassano, The Village © Virginia Cassano, The Village © Virginia Cassano, The Village © Virginia Cassano, The Village © Virginia Cassano, The Village © Virginia Cassano, The Village © Virginia Cassano, The Village © Virginia Cassano, The Village © Virginia Cassano, The Village © Virginia Cassano, The Village © Virginia Cassano, The Village TPL: Villaggio Piaggio carries a strong history of labor, family, and industrial life. What did you want to understand about this neighborhood that history alone could not tell you? VIRGINIA: I wanted to delve deeper into the stories of a glorious era and seek out the testimonies of former workers at the Piaggio Village, who speak of a world in which private life and factory work were inextricably linked. The sense of community was incredibly strong; they remember the Village not merely as a collection of houses, but as one big extended family. Being a ‘Piaggista’ meant sharing work shifts, shopping at the staff shops and spending leisure time together. I wanted to seek them out, to make them the protagonists of a story that belongs to them and has not yet been told through photography. A story that has also become my own, with such a vast amount of photographic material that it is difficult to use it all. Nothing was to be left behind. TPL: When photographing former workers of the Piaggio factory, how did you begin those encounters, and what role did conversation, time, and trust play in the process? VIRGINIA: Conversation is everything! Listening is key. As I said earlier, I started by taking ‘photographic notes’, stopping people to ask a few quick questions and introducing my project. In the suburbs, you find so much warmth and humanity, and when you’re genuinely interested in people’s stories, it’s easy to be inundated with anecdotes. You just need to listen and ask questions. You need to go back several times to interview people, to understand and get to know them, and only then do they recognise you and introduce you to other neighbours who welcome you into their homes to share another life story, with trust and enthusiasm. It’s wonderful to shine a light on them, to give a voice to ordinary people and share their stories with others – stories that otherwise no one would ever have heard. TPL: You have described photography as an extension of your thoughts and emotions. What does the camera allow you to reach that words cannot? VIRGINIA: The camera goes where words fall short. It captures the body language and micro-expressions of the speaker, revealing what people truly feel, not just what they say. It is a spontaneous truth that cannot be filtered in the same way as words. It means capturing the unconscious – a habitual pattern of movement that is more interesting than the speech itself. Often, scenes emerge that I already had within me, in my memory – situations I’ve experienced, or photographs I’ve studied that have left a lasting impression on me. It’s like reliving them and freezing them in time. Long-term projects enrich you through reflections, anecdotes and new friendships. TPL: You describe the work as a visual transposition of a “viscous” feeling. What does that word mean to you, and how did you try to translate it into images? VIRGINIA: Having manual control in the camera is essential for me; I need to get the balance of elements just right for that particular situation. Often, an interesting photo arises from a mistake, just as is often the case in baking. I believe that what is considered wrong or a mistake in photography is, in reality, a race against time that slips away; you race faster than emotions and sensations, but you produce ‘dirtier’ images, which slip away almost slimy because they belong to a flashback, a memory, a moment that has already passed. This work contains a great deal of historical and personal memory; I find it natural that ‘dense’ images have emerged – images that have their own aesthetic, yet are vibrant with voices, echoes and shadows. TPL: Who or what has inspired the way you think about photography, memory, and human stories? This could be artists, writers, films, places, or people from your own life. VIRGINIA: I think of photography as a single frame from a film. For me, it’s like rewinding the film of my childhood. My father was also a videographer, so my imagination was always working overtime as I watched him edit the tapes, record the music and write the titles – all done analogue and by hand. My photography is influenced by my life experiences, the books I’ve read and the films I’ve seen. At some point, you recognise those frames; you rediscover them today. There are so many contemporary photographers who inspire me every day, from Alec Soth to Martin Bogren, Jassie Lenz, Elinor Carucci, Simona Ghizzoni, and many others. Filmmakers such as Wim Wenders or the great Italian directors of Neorealism, but literature also plays a fundamental role: writers who explore memory and identity inspire me to seek poetry in the little things. A good photograph must do what a great book does: suggest a story, evoke an atmosphere and leave room for the viewer’s imagination. TPL: What would we find in your camera bag and is there one piece of equipment that is on your wish list? VIRGINIA: My camera bag is small; I always use my mirrorless camera and almost always with the same 18–55 f/2.8 lens. I was a Nikon user for years, but I’ve now switched to Fujifilm. I’ve never felt the need for cameras that perform any better than this; I’ve just upgraded my kit every five years, mainly so that I can get excellent image quality straight out of the camera and minimise the amount of post-production work. © Virginia Cassano, The Village © Virginia Cassano, The Village © Virginia Cassano, The Village © Virginia Cassano, The Village © Virginia Cassano, The Village © Virginia Cassano, The Village © Virginia Cassano, The Village © Virginia Cassano, The Village © Virginia Cassano, The Village © Virginia Cassano, The Village © Virginia Cassano, The Village © Virginia Cassano, The Village © Virginia Cassano, The Village © Virginia Cassano, The Village TPL: Do you collect anything from the places you photograph, such as art, notes, objects, sounds, or conversations? VIRGINIA: Absolutely. Notes, audio recordings of interviews, group photos, funny selfies with people, books and gifts I’ve been given. TPL: What would you like to understand more deeply through photography over the next few years? VIRGINIA: I’d like to create a project with a social theme. To document a reality far removed from my own, focusing on volunteering, education and disability. Recently, I’ve begun to observe the changes in my mum: her progressive forgetfulness, her routine that seems unchanged, yet she herself is changing slowly and inexorably. This new state of health, as well as being painful for me, is challenging because it is extremely difficult for me to photograph her whilst being fully aware of her condition. TPL: When you are not photographing, what do you do for pleasure, rest, or to return to yourself? VIRGINIA: I never stop taking photographs with my eyes. I see beautiful and interesting things everywhere, even in the less attractive things. It happens when I’m out jogging, when I’m travelling, or when I go to the cinema. When I talk to people and observe them. In my spare time, I look at a lot of photography by other young photographers online or at exhibitions. PORTFOLIO WEBSITE INSTAGRAM read more interviews >>> THE VILLAGE A workers’ neighbourhood becomes a living archive as Virginia Cassano photographs the people, streets, and memories that continue to shape Villaggio Piaggio. MUTABLE MORPHOGENESIS By merging scientific methodologies with photographic experimentation, Emma Varga creates images that challenge fixed distinctions between human and non-human, visible and invisible. THE ARCHITECTURE OF CONSCIOUSNESS Chad Coombs’ Polaroids are small psychological scenes where identity, memory, culture, and belief push against each other. WHERE WE BELONG Community storytelling lies at the heart of The Pictorial List’s mission, and Marlon Ramos’ photographs reflects the spirit of the place we now call home. GUIDED BY A WHISPER Guided by reflection and the quiet presence of art history, Isolda Fabregat Sanz makes photographs that resist certainty and invite the viewer to remain inside the act of looking. WHAT REMAINS, WHAT EMERGES Laetitia Heisler transforms risk, memory, and the body into layered analogue visions — feminist rituals of seeing that reveal what endures, and what quietly emerges beyond visibility. WHAT WE ARE, WHAT WE DO Culture lives where art and community meet, and in this space Alejandro Dávila’s photographs reveal the unseen labor and devotion that sustain creation. ANALOGICAL LIMBO Nicola Cappellari reminds us that the photograph’s power lies not in what it shows, but in what it leaves unsaid. THREADS OF MOROCCAN LIFE Through gestures of work and moments of community, Kat Puchowska reveals Morocco’s overlooked beauty. IT STARTED AS LIGHT…ENDED IN SHIVERS… Between intimacy and estrangement, Anton Bou’s photographs wander — restless fragments of light and shadow, mapping the fragile terrain where self unravels into sensation. WITH EYES THAT LISTEN AND A HEART THAT SEES For decades, Rivka Shifman Katvan has documented the unseen backstage world of Broadway, capturing authenticity where performance and humanity intersect. DIPTYCH DIALOGUES Through the beautiful language of diptychs, Taiwanese photographer Jay Hsu invites us into a world where quiet images speak of memory, resilience, and hope. UNKNOWN ABYSSINIA In Ethiopia, Sebastian Piatek found a new way of seeing — where architecture endures, but women in motion carry the narrative forward. THE PULSE OF THE STREET Moments vanish, yet Suvam Saha holds them still — the pulse of India’s streets captured in fragments of life that will never repeat. WHAT DO WE WANT? More than documentation, David Gray reveals the human pulse of resistance and asks us to see beyond the surface of unrest. CRACKED RIBS 2016 Cynthia Karalla opens up about the art of survival, the power of perspective, and why she believes each of us holds a monopoly on our own narrative. STREETS OF KOLKATA Ayanava Sil’s reveals Kolkata’s soul, capturing moments with empathy, presence and humility while offering deep insight into both city and self. PERIPHERAL PLACES A project by Catia Montagna that distills fleeting encounters and spatial poetics into triptychs - visual short stories that capture the in-between, where meaning often hides. POINTE-AU-CHIEN IS NOT DEAD Through Wayan Barre’s documentary, we are invited not only to see but to feel the lived realities of a community standing at the crossroads of environmental collapse and cultural survival. QUEER HAPPENED HERE Author Marc Zinaman sheds light on the valuable contributions that LGBTQ+ individuals have made to the cultural and social fabric of New York City. TRACES OF TIME Marked by an ongoing visual dialogue with time, memory, and impermanence, Zamin Jafarov’s long-term projects highlight the quiet power of observation and the emotional depth of simplicity. THERE MY LITTLE EYES Guillermo Franco’s book is an exploration of seeing beyond the obvious. His work invites us to embrace patience, curiosity, and the unexpected in a world that often rushes past the details. VISUAL HEALING BEYOND THE DIAGNOSIS Betty Goh’s photography exemplifies the transformative power of visual storytelling, where personal adversity becomes a canvas for resilience, illuminating the connection between art, healing, and self-reclamation. EVERYDAY BLACKNESS Parvathi Kumar’s book is a profound tribute to the resilience, and contributions of incredible Black women from all walks of life, making it a vital addition to the conversation around International Women’s Month. A VOYAGE TO DISCOVERY Fanja Hubers’ journey in photography is one of continuous exploration, balancing documentation with artistic self-reflection.