The biennial festival, promoted by the Associazione Fotografica APS in collaboration with the City of Bergamo - with the contribution of the Lombardy Region, the support of Main Sponsors Fujifilm, Telmotor and ABB and thanks also to the contribution of Milan Bergamo Airport - will animate Città Alta from October 11 to November 9 telling stories of courage, the often silent one that inhabits the gestures, dreams and resistance of those who do not give up - says Daniela Sonzogni, Festival Director. The courage of those who face injustice, war and poverty, while continuing to imagine a possible and different future. Fotografica has always questioned contemporaneity: each image becomes a sign and a testimony, an invitation to pause in the gaze and recognize the beauty that comes from human tenacity.

An invitation that takes shape in a rich and articulated exhibition program.
Thirteen exhibitions are scheduled, which will transform two of the city's symbolic places into spaces of vision and encounter: the Monastero del Carmine, a public cultural asset of great historical and artistic interest and since 1996 the home of the TTB Teatro tascabile di Bergamo - Accademia delle Forme Sceniche, and the former Ateneo di Scienze Lettere ed Arti, a historical and culturally active space located above the Fontanone visconteo behind Piazza del Duomo.

THE AUTHORS OF THE V EDITION OF PHOTOGRAPHIC
Forough Alaei, Silvia Alessi, Todd Antony, Peter Caton, Roselena Maristella, Francesco Roncoli, Nicolò Filippo Rosso, Fabrizio Spucches, Brent Stirton, Valentina Tamborra and Laura Leonelli - curator of the Love you always exhibition - are the authors who will offer their views on this year's theme.
Completing the program are Anya Tsaruk and Yingying Gao, winners in the Photography and AI Photography categories, respectively, of the Festival's first international open call, Fotografica Next, held in collaboration with Fondazione Alfaparf Milano, the ETS foundation of Alfaparf Milano Group.
With 825 projects submitted by 708 young people between the ages of 18 and 30 from 85 countries, the initiative achieved an amazing result. "With Fotografica Next we wanted to open a glimpse into the future," stresses Paola Foresti, Alfaparf Foundation board member, "welcoming different languages, from traditional photography to new experiments with artificial intelligence. Imagining a better world, for Fondazione Alfaparf, begins with reaching out to younger people, giving them space, credit and a listening ear."

AN INCLUSIVE FESTIVAL
The new generations have always been at the center of the Festival's educational paths, which includes PCTO projects with the city's high schools, which are enthusiastically involved each year in welcoming and cultural mediation activities. This focus extends to a broader idea of participatory culture, which includes associations and groups in the area, fostering dialogue and inclusion.
An example of this is the involvement of the Centers for All Ages (CTE), intergenerational meeting spaces that combat loneliness and promote active aging, as well as that of realities that support people in fragile conditions, so that culture is truly accessible to all.

THE EXHIBITIONS OF THE FIFTH EDITION
In the two exhibition venues, images become living testimonies, stories of struggle and hope, and chronicles of realities in which courage is not just a heroic act, but the daily commitment of those who fight to assert their ideas, often defying oppressive regimes and adversity. This is the case of the Afghan hairdressers who had to leave their country after the arrival of the Taliban, or had to abandon their trade (if not carrying it out clandestinely to support their families) recounted in The Cut, a photographic project begun in 2021 by Silvia Alessi from Bergamo, Italy (the images in the exhibition are printed on Fujifilm photographic paper). And it is women again, the protagonists of When Women lead. The shedding of decayed society, by Forough Alaei, an Iranian photographer who narrates through her lens the social transformation of Iran through the courage of groups of Iranian women who, defying rules and taboos, are changing the face of society inspired by the "Woman, Life, Freedom" movement. Courage is also that of migrants, which often reveals tragic endings in people's fates-a reality that involves everyone, as recalled in NoWay! Fabrizio Spucches. Nicolò Filippo Rosso does the same in Exodus, a project made in collaboration with Fujifilm, recounting in images the routes of migrants in Latin America towards the hope of a better life. The traumas of migrants Valentina Tamborra (Fujifilm X-Photographer) tries to tell them for Doctors Without Borders in Remano i fiori, a collaborative, multimedia work inspired by NET (Narrative Exposure Therapy), used in the therapeutic journey of women and men who have survived torture and violence.
Courageous in challenging stereotypes are the Cholitas Escaladoras, a group of indigenous Aymara women in Bolivia who have defied social conventions by climbing mountains. A word - Cholita - used in a derogatory term, but claimed by them with pride, as we discover in Todd Antony's work. Those subjected to heavy repression for merely wanting to live their sexuality freely are the people in the Rainbow movement in Uganda, where the crime of homosexuality is in force. Brent Stirton, in Fleeing Uganda shows the plight of those who decide, nonetheless, to live true to their natures, while Peter Caton, winner of World Press Photo, in Unyelding Floods photographed the unequal struggle of villagers trying to protect their homes and livelihoods from the catastrophic floods, still ongoing, in South Sudan, and which have not receded in five years. This disaster is counterbalanced by the severe drought affecting Sicily: the daily effort of farmers in coping with this severe situation brought about by climate change is immortalized in Roselena Maristella's Chronicles of Water. A message of love is the one contained in Love you always, curated by journalist Laura Leonelli, a collection of a hundred anonymous photographs, dated between 1860 and 1960, from Europe, including the East, to America, which is meant to be a tribute to the figure of the sailor, and his "oceanic courage." Among the projects in the exhibition is For Humanity, a work by Francesco Roncoli dedicated to the crew of SOS Humanity, the nongovernmental organization that searches for and rescues migrants at sea. Completing the program are I Hope Your Family is Safe by Anya Tsaruk, a Ukrainian photographer based in Berlin, and Glass Mountain by Chinese photographer and designer Yingying Gao, winning projects - in the Photography and AI Photography categories, respectively - of the open call. Two young and powerful looks, capable of transforming personal experience and symbolic dimension into a universal reflection on war, memory, spirituality and resilience.

THE EVENTS.
The program of Fotografica includes a rich calendar of events that weave together meetings, presentations, screenings, guided tours and moments of discussion with authors, curators and reality partners of the Festival.
A valuable opportunity for aspiring photographers and enthusiasts to engage in discussions with experts, the Portfolio Readings (Saturday, Oct. 11) represent one of the most anticipated moments along with the guided tours with the authors: scheduled on the different opening weekends of the Festival, they allow visitors to get to the heart of the exhibition projects and dialogue directly with the photographers.
Among the events on the opening weekend is the conference "Beyond the Lens: Photography in the Age of AI," with documentary photographer and AI artist Filippo Venturi. Organized in collaboration with BergamoScienza and supported by Fondazione Alfaparf, the initiative invites people to reflect on what it means to "see" in the age of artificial intelligence, questioning the boundary between authenticity and simulation, reportage and imagination (Sunday, Oct. 12, 5 p.m. - Piazza della Libertà).
The weekend of Oct. 18 and 19 will be dedicated to special events by Fujifilm. On Saturday, Oct. 18 (2:30-4:30 p.m.) and Sunday, Oct. 19 (10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.), departing from the Monastero del Carmine, visitors will be able to participate in Photowalks led by photographer Alberto Selvestrel: a path that will combine a brief theoretical introduction with a hands-on experience among the charming streets of Bergamo Alta to explore light, composition and visual storytelling (the photowalk is reserved for a maximum of 20 people per session and has a symbolic cost of 5 euros). Throughout the weekend, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Fujifilm will also be present with a Touch & Try Point, where visitors can experience firsthand the potential of the X and GFX Series.
On Oct. 19, at 10 a.m., at the Angelo Mai Library, as part of Sunday 10 a.m., curator Laura Leonelli and Festival Director Daniela Sonzogni will present Love you always. A Sentimental Journey into the Ocean of Sailors and Photography: a journey through a century of anonymous images recounting departures and returns, storms and expectations, paying homage to collective memory and the evocative power of photography. In the afternoon, the Festival will host the conference NoWay!, a meeting presenting the volume of the same name (ed. NCF) with photographer Fabrizio Spucches, curator Alessandro Curti, Enrico Dal Buono and Mediterranea Saving Humans.
On Oct. 25 (4 p.m., Sala Teatro del Monastero del Carmine), Benedetta Donato, curator and director of the Romano Cagnoni Award, will lead the conference The Courage of Women Photographers, dedicated to the professional and life paths of some leading figures in visual culture, rediscovered only in recent years as indispensable voices in photography and, in particular, to the work of Forough Alaei.
At 6 p.m., the docu-film The Cut, curated by Silvia Alessi and Max Losito with curator Alessio Fusi, will be screened. The stories of resistance of Afghan hairdressers will also be featured on Nov. 9, as part of the meeting curated by Roberto Tomelleri scheduled in the 10 a.m. Sunday schedule at the Angelo Mai Library.
On Nov. 8 and 9, Fotografica joins the Contemporary Locus 17 - Open Community project, with two free guided tours (20 places per round) of the Festival starting with Nicolò Filippo Rosso's project Exodus, which puts the theme of migration in dialogue with the memorial value of Bergamo's Monumental Cemetery.

The schedule of events is being finalized. See the official website and social channels for updates.

PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP
The only workshop in this edition, "From Shooting to Publication. Distributing a Photography Project," will be led by photojournalist Nicolò Filippo Rosso and Laura Carnemolla, a consultant and expert in editorial distribution. Two days of training to understand how to pitch a project to international publishers, from defining stories to writing synopses and distribution strategies (Saturday, Oct. 11, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. and 3-6 p.m. and Sunday, Oct. 12, 9 a.m.-1 p.m., for info and costs: www.fotograficafestival.it).

CIRCUIT OFF.
Rounding out the fifth edition of Fotografica is the OFF Circuit, which enriches the exhibition offerings with two major exhibitions.
The Cartacea Galleria hosts Il canto dei nuovi emigranti, a tribute to Mario Giacomelli on the occasion of the centenary of his birth: 26 vintage photographs taken between 1984 and 1985 in Calabria, a powerful and poetic tale about migration, roots and collective memory.
Instead, OpenArch presents in the Daste space, a center for sociality and creative production built in a former thermoelectric power plant on the outskirts of Bergamo, Stratos. Cities within Cities, a choral project by Albergati, Aschedamini, Matalon and Van de Ven that brings the gaze to Bangkok, Haifa, Milan and Eindhoven: cities told in their stratification of transformations, experiences and contradictions. An invitation to reflect on the courage needed to inhabit, transform and reinvent urban spaces.

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