These are my parents
Photographer: Maurizio Di Pietro
Exhibit Title: These are my parents
Location: Italy
In 2016, my mother fell ill and, within six months, passed away from leukemia. From that moment, my life, my family's life, and especially my father's life changed completely.
My father had been undergoing treatment since 2001, also for cancer, which had spread from his kidney to his shoulders and eventually to his head. After my mother's death, I began photographing my family, particularly my father, and I continued until his death.
This series documents the absence and the void left by my mother's passing, but it also captures the rebirth of Ugo—as a man, as a father, and most importantly, as a grandfather, despite his illness.
As a photographer, I have always been particularly drawn to the relationships, in all their various forms, that develop between the subjects and the photographer. This is the fundamental reason, though not the only one, that drives me to work on stories where the shot is merely the final act of a relationship that has formed over time. Without time, an image would probably not exist because that event would never have happened before my eyes.
For this reason, my stories are often long-term projects, spanning several years, and my subjects are those with whom I can establish a sense of empathy—people who reveal both fragility and resilience. A photographic series is anything but a random process; it is built through study, reflection, dialogue, and analysis. It is a creative process driven by emotions, involvement, and empathy.
These Are My Parents reinforced my belief that to tell a powerful and honest story, one must seek true intimacy and humility with the subject.
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