FOTOGRAFIA EUROPEA 2025 - XX edition

The 20th edition of the Reggio Emilia festival is dedicating its exhibitions to a time of life when the possibilities seem endless. Chiostri di San Pietro, Palazzo da Mosto, Palazzo dei Musei, Biblioteca Panizzi, Spazio Gerra and the Circuito OFF venues will play host to exhibitions by both the greats of photography and emerging talents

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From 24 April to 8 June 2025, Reggio Emilia will yet again examine changes in contemporary society through the eyes of the greats of photography and emerging talents with the 20th edition of FOTOGRAFIA EUROPEA, the festival organised and promoted by Fondazione Palazzo Magnani and the Municipality of Reggio Emilia, with the support of the Emilia-Romagna Region.“BEING TWENTY” is the theme chosen by the festival’s artistic directors Tim Clark (editor of 1000 Words), Walter Guadagnini (photography historian and director of CAMERA - Centro Italiano per la Fotografia) and Luce Lebart (researcher and curator, Archive of Modern Conflict).

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How many times, as adults, do we say “if only I was twenty again”? A phrase, an expression that, in an ideal world, would free us from the responsibilities and burdens of being grown-ups and take us back to a time bathed by the waters and lightness of youth, when everything was still a wonderful possibility and the future was just waiting to be written.But what does it mean to young people today to be twenty? Twenty is an age of contradictions; twenty-year-olds are adults, but often still live at home with their parents; they are connected to the whole world, but the loneliness can be overwhelming. They face huge expectations, both personal and social: finding a fulfilling job, building meaningful relationships, giving a sense to their own existence, and imagining a better world, for themselves and others.

This year, Fotografia Europea wanted to follow this path, walk part of the way alongside the young people of Generation Z, who have grown up at a time when technological progress has opened up infinite possibilities, but also unprecedented crises to be tackled, individually and collectively. This generation is rediscovering the importance and need to fight for their rights and for a more equitable future.The projects chosen examine this and much more besides, drawing attention to stories that may be new and unusual but are also bursting with that boundless vital energy that makes you believe, at least once in your life, that you can change the world.

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Over the course of his sixty-year career, Daido Moriyama (b. 1938, Osaka) decisively altered how we experience photography. He used his camera to investigate post-war Japanese society and document his surroundings, but he also questioned the nature of photography itself.

His unmistakable visual language is as lauded as his countless publications, which are central to his work.

This retrospective will be the first to exhibit most of his famous series along with dozens of Moriyama’s photobooks and magazines, plus numerous works and large-scale installations. Taken together, is presents one of the most innovative and influential artists and street photographers of our day.

Moriyama’s photographic subjects captivated viewers from the start, whether he was working with mass media and advertisements, societal taboos, or the theatricality of everyday life. He captured the clash of Japanese tradition and accelerated Westernization following the US military occupation of Japan after the end of World War II. Inspired by US artists such as Andy Warhol and William Klein, the photographer vivisected burgeoning consumer society in Japan. He explored the reproducibility of images, their dissemination, and consumption. Over and again, Moriyama placed his archive of images in new contexts, playing with enlargements, crops, and image resolution. Even today, his pioneering artistic spirit and visual intensity remain groundbreaking.

Daido Moriyama: A Retrospective is the product of a three-year research period, and is one of the most comprehensive exhibitions ever mounted of this artist’s work. It is organized by Instituto Moreira Salles in cooperation with the Daido Moriyama Photo Foundation. Chosen by The Guardian as the year`s best photo show in London. This show has been presented at Instituto Moreira Salles (São Paulo), C/O Berlin, The Photographer’s Gallery (London), The Finnish Museum of Photography (Helsinki) and PhotoElysée (Lausanne), at Fotografia Europea it arrives for its first Italian stop.

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