Like the work of Luigi Ghirri and of his close friend, Gianni Celati—the latter born in Sondrio—Beniamino Pisati’s photographs of the Valtellina Valley in the Alps share a deep affection for the Italian landscape. Looking at Pisati’s photographs, one can’t help but wonder if we’re glimpsing a vanishing world—with its cows, whose cheese tastes of the alpine grasses they feed on, and its farmers, whose traditional hats echo the peaks of the surrounding mountains. Through Pisati’s eyes, it’s as if we’re seeing this remote, rural landscape for “the first and last time,” to quote Ghirri.
Rebecca Norris Webb / URBAN 2020 Jury Commission