Alessio Cupelli is the photographer of the Sirmione Photo Residency 2026

 Alessio Cupelli photographs what often remains on the margins of the gaze. Urban peripheries, communities in motion, border spaces between belonging and distance, the silences that run through contemporary human landscapes. His is a form of photography that does not chase the event, but captures presence; not the spectacular image, but relationships. Over the years, he has built an authorial path grounded in listening and patient observation, working across multicultural neighborhoods, migratory contexts, and territories in transformation. His images arise from real encounters and return fragments of lives, identities, and places with a delicate and deeply human gaze.

It is this gaze that the Sirmione Photo Residency 2026 has selected. A slow and patient gaze that, in October, will be invited to explore the peninsula through its lived spaces, the relationships that run through it, and the stories that settle within it.

For the 2026 edition as well, the jury composed of Andréa Holzherr and Ludovica Pellegatta, respectively Global Exhibitions Director and Curator and Partnerships Director of Magnum Photos, reviewed applications from all over the world (142 projects were submitted). A difficult choice, given the high quality of the proposals received, testifying to the growing prestige of the Sirmione residency in the field of contemporary authorial photography. As Ludovica Pellegatta states:

“The Sirmione Photo Residency is a space where photography transforms from a photographic snapshot into a moment of encounter. Through the gaze of those who explore it from unprecedented perspectives, the Residency gradually produces a mapping of stories and multifaceted portraits, capable of preserving the memory of a territory and of a community in transition.”

The social and community value of the Residency is also highlighted by Luisa Lavelli, Mayor of Sirmione:

“With the Sirmione Photo Residency, year after year we are composing a constellation of gazes on Sirmione, in which each author adds a perspective that enriches the narrative of the territory. Into this constellation enters Alessio Cupelli, whose intimate and sensitive gaze has particularly struck us. I am confident that his capacity for listening and attention to human relationships will offer us an authentic and profound reading of our community.”

• Silent Conversations” for Sirmione

In his project proposal for the Sirmione Photo Residency, Alessio Cupelli will work on an exploration of the territory that prioritizes listening and slow observation. The aim is to explore the human and natural coordinates of Sirmione, focusing on the deep relationship between the landscape and those who inhabit it on a daily basis.

The project will move along intimate paths, seeking to capture the essence of the bond with the lake environment through a research process open to encounters and unforeseen events. Cupelli intends to return an image of the place as a living presence, allowing silence and countless human connections to gradually suggest the final form of the work.

Thus says Riccardo Genovesi, Councillor for Tourism: “Sirmione is a community that contains many communities in continuous transformation, and tourism is among the most dynamic. A layering of presences, places, and times that makes our territory a privileged observatory of collective living: the gaze of Alessio Cupelli will be able to offer us an original navigational map of this complexity.”

Alessio Cupelli is a photographer and visual storyteller, born in Liège in 1981 and based in Rome. After studying Arts and Media at DAMS in Bologna, he completed a three-year master’s degree in photography at the Scuola Romana, a path that shaped his authorial and documentary approach. Since 2011 he has collaborated with Paolo Pellegrin, contributing to international reportage, exhibitions, and editorial and humanitarian campaigns worldwide. Among his main works: Nadab (2015), a project on the Syrian diaspora in collaboration with INTERSOS; the transmedia documentary Relocated Identities (2018), supported by the European Union; and Torpigna (2021–2023), a visual narrative on the Roman neighborhood of Torpignattara, acquired by the national photographic archive of the City of Rome and published in the volume Roma ChilometroZero (Contrasto, 2024).

He has collaborated with Leica, Fujifilm, Contrasto, Open Arms, INTERSOS, UNHCR, Netflix, and Sea-Watch. His images have been published in La Repubblica, Corriere della Sera, La Stampa, Avvenire, and other national and international media. In 2025 he exhibited in Paris at the Hôtel de Ville in the exhibition Roma Aujourd’hui.

The project that convinced the jury of the Sirmione Photo Residency, and of which we enclose some selected shots, is titled As if I belonged: a body of work where the images come from different contexts but share a single intention—seeking human connection, allowing the inner landscape to emerge, and restoring presence without intrusion.

Human landscapes by Alessio Cupelli for the Sirmione Photo Residency 2026: press release in Italian only

In the photo gallery we present a selection of images from the project As if I belonged.