Is an American photographer. Her work was exhibited in international photography festivals such as the Athens Photo Festival at the Benaki Museum in Athens, Greece; and Cortona on the Move, in Cortona, Italy, as well as appearing in a biennial at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC, USA, and at GuatePhoto International Photography Festival in Guatemala City, Guatemala. Her work is in collection institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art Library in New York, Whitney Museum of American Art Library, Smithsonian American Art Museum Library, the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago and the Nelson Atkins Museum for Art in Kansas City. A photobook of her work with artist Antone Dolezal, Devil’s Promenade, was published by Overlapse Books in 2021. A second photobook, Desire Lines, was published by Overlapse Books in 2023. Lara’s photographs appear in publications such as The New Yorker Magazine, Harper’s Magazine, British Journal of Photography, Atlantic Monthly, Vice, and NPR. She received a MFA in photography from Arizona State University and a Bachelors of Photojournalism from the University of Missouri. She is an Assistant Professor of Photography at Michigan State University.
Born in August 1994, he began photographing at the age of 17, driven by the fear of forgetting his own life. He started by capturing moments of teenage life—first cigarettes, first loves—of the boys and girls in his hometown. His nostalgic images, widely shared on social media, resonate with adolescents all over the world. This early success allowed him to travel and broaden his photographic horizons. In every place he visits, he captures youth—young people from different countries, yet connected by the same universal emotions and experiences. His photos are known for their rosy tones and dreamy atmospheres, telling stories of love, diversity, youth, and nostalgia. Alongside photography, he also produces videos, filming scenes of everyday life between shots. He currently lives in his hometown, Palermo, where he bought an apartment and covered its walls with murals and naïve-style paintings of his own creation—depicting the same friends featured in his countless photographs. Paolo Raeli’s work has been exhibited in cities such as Palermo, Rome, Los Angeles, and Seoul.
He is a British documentary photographer of Indian origin, born in 1971 in London. His work explores memory, identity, and the sense of belonging through both documentary and staged imagery. In 2000, he won the prestigious World Press Photo award and has received international recognition for projects carried out in India, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In 2015, he published Lost in the Wilderness, a book focused on the Sioux reservations, described by critic Sean O’Hagan as one of the best photobooks of the year. In 2022, he released Memoire Temporelle, a project set in Bombay that reflects on memory, nostalgia, and the notion of home. His work has been exhibited in leading galleries and institutions internationally.
He is an artist, photographer, and professor based between Hamburg and Berlin. His practice focuses on socio-economic and political themes, combining photography, video collage, and installations through a research-driven and subjectively narrative approach. He has worked in numerous countries, including Iraq, Ukraine, Syria, Nigeria, China, and India. Holding a Master’s degree in Photography, he has received international awards such as the World Photography Award and the International Photography Award, and has been nominated for the Prix Pictet and the Leica Oskar Barnack Prize. A member of the German Photographic Academy since 2016, he founded the “Format” photography lab in Hamburg. Since 2024, he has been a professor of artistic photography at the University of Arts in Darmstadt.
She lives and works in Melbourne, on the land of the Bunurong/Boonwurrung people of the Kulin Nations. Her practice explores the relationship between humans and the more-than-human world, using photography in unconventional ways. She published the monograph Extraordinary Experiences (2022), named Australian Photobook of the Year, followed by Beware of People Who Dislike Cats (2023) and Phenomena (2023). Her work has been awarded and exhibited internationally and featured in publications such as The New York Times, The Guardian, and Art and Australia. She teaches photography at Swinburne University and is currently completing a PhD on the colonial representation of the kangaroo.
Is a Spanish artist and photographer currently based in Germany, whose evocative work delves into the intricacies of motherhood, identity, and belonging. Her photographic journey began during the COVID-19 pandemic, a period marked by profound personal transformation and displacement. As a new mother and migrant, Isa turned to photography as a therapeutic outlet, capturing the intimate, fleeting moments of everyday life. Her series Birthmark explores the deep emotional landscapes of early motherhood, intertwining themes of nostalgia, magic, and the search for home. Isa’s work is characterized by its raw honesty and tender portrayal of the maternal experience, offering a unique perspective that challenges traditional representations. Through her lens, Isa Rus creates a visual narrative that is both deeply personal and universally relatable, inviting viewers to connect with the beauty and complexity of the human condition.
She is a French photographer based in Paris and the recipient of major awards such as the Leica Oscar Barnack Award, the World Press Photo, and the Prix Niépce. She has received several commissions from the French Ministry of Culture and has exhibited in museums and galleries internationally. Her works are held in prestigious public and private collections. She has published seven monographs, including Peuples de Sibérie and Amour. Positioned between reality and fiction, her work explores themes such as memory, adolescence, and travel. She is represented by the In Camera gallery and is a member of the Vu agency.
From September 10 to 16, 2025, Rifugio Digitale presents Homecoming Open Walls, an event organized as part of the Estate Fiorentina 2025 festival – within the framework of the National Program PN METRO PLUS e CITTÀ MEDIE SUD 2021–2027 and in collaboration with Forma Edizioni. The event unfolds in two distinct yet complementary moments: inside Rifugio Digitale, the exhibition will feature a daily focus dedicated to each artist involved in the project, transforming the space into a place of in-depth exploration. At the same time, the façades of Fornace Suite will host an immersive outdoor video-mapping installation, showcasing the work… photographers Lara Shipley (USA), Paolo Raeli (ITA), Kalpesh Lathigra (UK), Robin Hinsch (DE), Morganna Magee (AUS), Isa Rus (ES), and Claudine Doury (FR).
The photographic cycle Homecoming – conceived by Irene Alison and co-curated with Paolo Cagnacci – is a visual investigation into the meaning of return. At its heart lies the concept of “home”: an ancient and universal theme, but now more than ever charged with tension and ambiguity. Initiated during the 2023–2024 biennium through a series of exhibitions at Rifugio Digitale, the project explores a liminal space, where the desire for belonging intertwines with the fragmentation of the contemporary world, marked by forced migration, fluid identities, and global connections.
Through diverse perspectives, experiences, and poetics, the participating photographers trace both intimate and collective paths in search of a place to call home. But in this project, “home” is never just a physical space: it is an emotional tension, an affective memory, sometimes an absence. It is the need for roots, but also the awareness that those roots can be mobile, fragmented, or even broken. Each image thus becomes an attempt to name what remains – or is lost – when we speak of origin, belonging, and identity.
With this exhibition, Homecoming extends beyond the gallery walls and into the public space, transforming the city into a true open-air gallery.
The term “open-air gallery” carries a dual meaning: on the one hand, it refers to the transformation of urban space into an accessible and shared exhibition venue; on the other, it emphasizes the breaking of traditional artistic boundaries, as art steps out of conventional venues – museums, galleries, exhibition halls – to engage with the city, its inhabitants, and its urban landscape. The dialogue between art and architecture is enriched by innovative technologies, such as audio-visual mapping and 3D graphics, which turn architectural surfaces into dynamic displays. The result is a contemporary installation, suspended between reality and fiction, where the visual experience intertwines with emotional and communal engagement.
Homecoming Open Walls does not merely re-present the photographic series in an outdoor format: it reinterprets and recontextualizes the work within the urban landscape, amplifying its evocative and political potential. The goals are manifold: to broaden the audience by overcoming the physical limits of the gallery; to democratize art by making it accessible to all; to stimulate shared reflection on socially and culturally relevant themes; and to strengthen the sense of belonging through a collective experience. The photographs thus become part of the city’s visual heritage, a tool for symbolic reappropriation of space, and a trigger for new imaginaries.
In this new urban scenario, Homecoming becomes a collective, evolving narrative that invites each of us to reflect on what it truly means to “return home” – and where, today, that home might still be found.
