Samuele Visotti is an Italian photographer born on October 31st, 1995, in Pratovecchio Stia, a small village in the hearth of Tuscany, Italy. After graduating from high school, he attended a 2-year professional photography study programme at Spazio Labò - Centro di Fotografia in Bologna school.

The multidisciplinary study programme is intended to shape and build professionals able to range and experiment across the main visual arts. Over the years of study he developed interest and delved into documentary photography, eventually launching his first photography project "Radici" (Roots), which focuses on his native town, Pratovecchio Stia, capturing places and people living there and  hinting at the challenges that associate them to all Italian rural areas.

Radici (Roots)

Pratovecchio Stia, the place where the author was born, is a town nestled in the Tuscany forests in Italy.
The village counts about 5,000 people, mostly elderly, and as most italian rural and inland areas,  retaining young people and families represents the main territory’s challenge.  After years of industrial and artisanal development, the area started seeing a slow decline since the 1990s, mainly due to the distance from the main exchange and globalization routes, which led to an ever greater migration of the local population towards urban areas.

Nowadays, the territory is experiencing a tourism-oriented transformation, thanks to its remarkable historical and cultural heritage and important religious sites. The establishment of the Parco Nazionale delle Foreste Casentinesi (lit. National Park of the Casentino Forests), one of the most important natural parks in Italy featuring fully unviolated areas ( defined as Integral Reserves), and appointed as UNESCO heritage site, has contributed to boost ecotourism and interest from all over the world.

Through his photography project, the artist investigates places and people living in the area, guiding the observer through the territory, its changes but also everything that has remained unchanged over the years. The author tackles these themes through portrait and landscape photographs and above all, through metaphorical and conceptual photographs, in an attempt to lead the audience to reflect and make people reflect on the country's past, present and future.

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