THE WALL OF SILENCE

• Prize
• Photographer
  Mauro De Bettio, Spain
• Website
  https://www.maurodebettio.com
• Instagram
  https://www.instagram.com/mauro_de_bettio/

At 22:39 on October 9, 1963, a 2 km long landslide of more than 270
million cubic meters of rock breaks off the Toc mountain and slip down
the valley, crashing inside the artificial lake. The water forms a 250m
high wave that flies in the sky and then crashes down on Longarone,
erasing it forever from the maps.Two thousand people are, now, one
with the earth. Only 50 are the survivors. Everything was done to take
away their dignity, to convince them that nothing was due to them.The
greatest protagonist of this painful and infinite catastrophe is the silence
that wounds the dead, the relatives, the survivors, the rescuers and all
those who came after.Still, the silence of a family, mine.For them, as for
me, it’s a path, to get rid of a nightmare that began on that day. A path
to start talking again, to trust and to love.

Born and raised in a little village in the Italian Alps, now based in Barcelona, Mauro already felt from young age the desire to tell. He discovered that the camera was the right tool for him, the eye through which he could speak to the world. An instrument that began to walk by his side towards a long journey of discovery.

“Although it is difficult to express, I think that the photograph represents my way of speaking and what I try to do through my language is to capture the sense of what I breathe and touch with my hands".

Awards 2nd prize in 'PEOPLE' category of IPOTY - International Photographer of the Year 2017

5 Honorable Mentions on 17th INTERNATIONAL CHROMATIC PHOTO AWARDS 2017

Jurors Picks LensCulture Portrait Awards 2018

2nd prize 2017 Tokyo International Foto Awards

Finalist American Photo Awards 2018

2nd Winner National Geographic Award (Italian) 2017

1st Category Winner FIIPA Award 2018

3rd place ND AWARDS 2017

1st category Winner Urbanphotoawards 2017

1st Winner National Geographic Award (Italian) 2018