Projects

2021-2022 - “Fountain of Youth”

The Honeys and Bears are a synchronized swimming team for seniors founded in 1979 in Harlem. Members are between the ages of 62 and 101 years old, some of whom still remember the era of segregated pools. Several have been swimming their entire lives; some are just beginning to learn. When they slip into the water, gravity seems to evaporate, diseases and injuries go unnoticed to make way for lightness and joy - they feel young again. 

This work has been published in The Washington Post and L’Equipe Magazine. It was also exhibited during various photography festivals including Encontros da Imagem (Porto, Braga), Festival of Ethical Photography (Lodi, Italy), Cascina Roma Fotografia (San Donato Milanese, Italy) and The Photographic Nights of Selma (Alabama, USA).

Fall 2022 - “Vermont, avant-garde”

I went on a road trip through Vermont to meet some of the change makers who contribute to the state’s reputation of being an outlier and a pioneer. This work is part of a feature story published in GEO Magazine in February 2023.

July 2021 - “There is no winner here” - Klamath Falls, OR

Along the California-Oregon border, the 2021 historic drought has heightened the stakes of the water crisis, the Upper Klamath Lake draining below critical thresholds for protecting the C’wam and Koptu, two species of native sucker fish sacred to the Klamath Tribes and listed as endangered species since 1988. Federal officials announced in the spring the dam gates would remain shut for the first time since 1907, depriving 1200 farm operations and several wildlife refuges from their main water source. This work is part of a feature story published in Libération in July 2021.

May 2021 - “chasing the storm” - Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas

I joined meteorologist and storm chaser Lanny Dean on a road trip that took us through Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas, in pursue of majestic clouds and captivating tornadoes. This work is part of a feature story published in Géo Magazine in October 2021.

February 2021 - A Shelter to the end - near edgemont, SD

Robert Vicino and his son Dante purchased a land at the base of the Black Hills in South Dakota, where 575 concrete and steel bunkers are still standing. In this fortress designed to store bombs and ammunition during the Second World War, they are hoping to build the largest survival community on earth. They call it xPoint, referring to “the point in time when only the prepared will survive.” This work is part of a feature story published in Usbek & Rica Magazine in May 2021.

Nov. 2020 - One Square Inch of Silence - Olympic Peninsula, WA

The Olympic Peninsula in Washington is one of the silent battlegrounds where Quiet Park International activists fight to protect “natural quiet”, defined as the sounds of nature without human-made noise.

I joined acoustic ecologists Laura Giannone and Gordon Hempton on their journey to record natural quiet, from the muddy trails of Hoh rainforest to the hilly streets of West Seattle. This work is part of a feature story published in Usbek & Rica Magazine in January 2021.

Sept. 2019 - Post-apocalyptic festival in California city, ca

Over 4300 people gather every year in the Mojave Desert for a post-apocalyptic festival. Together they build Wasteland City, an ephemeral city pulled straight out of the Mad Max movies, where costumes must be worn at all times and where it is not allowed to discuss religion or politics. For five days, participants are able to live “beyond the grip of so-called civilization”. This work is part of a photo essay published in Usbek & Rica Magazine in September 2019.

May 2019 - pesticides in the Central Valley, ca

In California, where over a third of the nation’s vegetables and two-thirds of its fruits and nuts are grown, farm workers are being sickened by chlorpyrifos, a pesticide that the Obama administration tried to ban. Scott Pruitt, newly appointed by Donald Trump to head the E.P.A., canceled the chlorpyrifos ban on March 29, 2017.

Nov. 2018 - searching for migrants in Arizona

Once a month, in the Arizona desert, Aguilas del desierto volunteers search for migrants who went missing in their attempt to cross the US-Mexico border. Cases are usually reported by relatives or through anonymous calls from smugglers indicating where their clients were left behind - most of them because they were exhausted, dehydrated or injured. I joined the volunteers on multiple expeditions to look for the body of Óscar Josué Sarmiento, a migrant from Honduras who disappeared in the summer of 2017. The 19-year-old lost his group while trying to escape a Border Patrol raid in the middle of the night. This work is part of a feature story published in Néon Magazine in January 2019. It was awarded the Fondation Varenne prize for “best feature”.

MAY 2018 - ARCOsanti, arizona

In 1972, architect Paolo Soleri started building a futuristic housing development in the middle of the Sonoran desert. A small community has formed around Soleri’s idea of the arcology (a portmanteau of “architecture” and “ecology”) and his radical experiment in urban planning has been running ever since. This work is part of a feature story published in Usbek & Rica Magazine in July 2018.

MARCH 2018 - Mars Desert Research Station, UTAH

The Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS), owned by the Mars Society, is a space simulation facility that supports research in pursuit of the technology and science required for human space exploration. It is located in Utah, surrounded by a landscape that is an actual geologic Mars analog. I spent a day under the constraints of a simulated Mars mission with a crew of students from the National Higher French Institute of Aeronautics and Space, while they were confined on a three-week long field trip. This work is part of a feature story published in Usbek & Rica Magazine in May 2018.