Sky painters

• Prize
  Gold in Special/Smartphone Photography, 1st Place winner in Special
• Photographer
  Simone Arrigoni, Italy

If you are a tiny creature and are the target of many deadly predators, you have to find an excellent defense strategy. In this, the starlings are true masters: coordinating their movements within large flocks, they dance in the sky in unison pretending to be a single entity that confuses and escapes its predators’ hunt.
I took in long exposure their flight in the autumnal sunsets of Rome, allowing designs to emerge in the sky as if the starlings were a myriad of pencils in the hand of a single painter.

• Biography
  Simone Arrigoni is a classical pianist, multiple Freediving World Record holder and successful photographer. He holds more than 150 awards in the most prestigious International Photo Contests, such as the 1st Prize in NTU 2017 by Singapore's Nanyang Technological University & National Geographic. He was appointed FIOF Italian Photography Ambassador in China 2017-2019 and has been Underwater Photography Festival Ambassador since 2019. His works have been published in books, magazines and catalogues, as well as being collected and exhibited worldwide, from USA to Japan via Europe and China.
• Awards
  - 1st Prize and "Jury Top Five Selection" in the International Photography Awards IPA 2021, category "Nature - Other" - 1st Prize "Special Best New Talent of the Year" in the PX3 Prix de la Photographie Paris 2020, category "Special" - Gold in the PX3 Prix de la Photographie Paris 2020, category "Special" - 1st Prize in FAPA Fine Art Photography Awards 2020, "category "Nature" - Grand Prize Winner "Best of Show" in Grey Cube Gallery's International Art Contest Sky 2020 - 1st Prize in BIFA Budapest International Foto Awards 2019, category "Nature" - Gold Award in BIFA Budapest International Foto Awards 2019, category "Nature - Underwater" - Gold Award in BIFA Budapest International Foto Awards 2019, category "Nature - Seasons" - Gold Award in MIFA Moscow International Foto Awards 2019, category "Nature - Underwater" - Gold Award in TIFA Tokio International Foto Awards 2018, category "Nature - Underwater" - 1st Prize in NTU International Photography Awards 2017 by Singapore's Nanyang Technological University & National Geographic - Gold Award in TIFA Tokio International Foto Awards 2017, category "Architecture-Interiors" - Gold Medal in the PX3 PRIX DE LA PHOTOGRAPHIE PARIS 2017, category "Architecture" - 1st Prize Best in Show in the Fusion Art's International Contest Skies Art Exhibition, Palm Springs (California) 2017 - 1st Prize in the New York International Photography and Digital Art Contest 2017 - 1st Prize in the FIIPA Fiof Italy International Photography Awards 2016, category "Architecture"