Lessinia is a nature reserve in Verona’s hills. It’s a tough, really tough ambient to have a flock.
There’s few open pastures because of the advance of the forest.
There’s a lot of abandoned lands and always fewer grazing animals, this leads to a harsh and wild landscape.
In the beginning there were wild boars to take over it, after them wolves complicated the cohabitation with grazers.
Despite it all Mattia (33 years old) and his partner Sofia (34 years old) live with their family composed by 240 sheep, 7 dogs, 20 goats and 2 donkeys.
Born in 1973 in Zevio, on the outskirts of Verona. In 1988 he got a degree in scenography at the Academy of Arts in Verona. From 1996 to 2009, thanks to the collaboration with Studio Brenzoni, his photographs were daily published in the pages regarding shows and cultural events of L’Arena di Verona, the local newspaper. In October 2001, after the September 11 events, he travelled to Afghanistan to master photographic techniques for international reportages, and put himself to the test. Several trips would follow: Albania, Thailand, India, Greenland, Fortaleza, Uganda, Ivory Coast, Malawi, Mali, Burkina Faso, Belarus and the Amazon. In 2002 he became a publicist and was registered in the Journalists’ Board of Veneto (the local county). Still in 2002 he opened his photographic studio: Atelier Bottega di fotografia, in Verona. In 2012 he collaborated as director of photography for Bolla’s institutional video, honoured in 2013 with two awards by Media Stars, the prestigious national contest in advertising. His latest project, completed after 6 years of work, is 13 Coins, which was awarded as best book at the 2010 European Photo Book of the Year Award. The exhibit of this project was displayed at the International Conference Center of Geneva, at the International Photographic Center of Verona, at the photo galleries in FNAC, and at the 2011 Pesaro Photo Festival. Since October 2013, for the duration of 3 years, a new photograpic and didactical project has started in the Townships of South Africa, and in Cape Town.
Awards FEP PHOTO BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARDS 2011
Reportage category for the book 13 Coins
Between 2018 and 2019 I won 2 International Awards for the best direction of photography in the short film “In the House of Mantegna”, one at the Phoenix Film Festival and the other in 2019 at the Toronto Film Festival.
