This summer, in the heart of Milan Malpensa’s Photosquare, millions of travellers could find themselves transported far beyond the airport’s polished halls – right to the Arctic wilderness. As part of the European Photographic Festival 2023, a unique exhibition AHKAT-TERRAMADRE presented captivating works of the X-Photographer Valentina Tamborra. Now, her work continues to travel and touch new audiences.
This photographic journey takes us to the far reaches of the Arctic, specifically Finnmark, where she gives voice to the Sami people, an indigenous community that has long been marginalized. Her project, I Nascosti (The Hidden Ones), is a profound exploration of identity, displacement, and connection — a delicate narrative that spans over four years of work and a trilogy of stories about the Arctic region. In her work, Tamborra reflects on her own feelings of loss and identity, drawing parallels between her personal history and the people she documents. Growing up on the border of Slovenia, she lost her grandmother’s language, which inspired her empathy for the Sami, a population divided by the borders of four nations: Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia.
“I know the tearing grief of a denied identity. I know the shame and the need to lie, to hide, to omit. And then I know the relief of finallylooking in the mirror for the first time in years and realizing that there is no need for labels, there are no right places and wrong places, no belongings to flaunt and others to hide. There is only us, with our load of humanity, of life, of all that we have been, are, and will be. There is us, and we no longer have to hide. Or at least, that is how it should be,”
Valrentina Tamborra, X-Photographer.
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© Valentina Tamborra
The images, captured with Fujifilm X-Series and GFX medium format cameras, have been beautifully printed on Fujicolor Velvet paper, offering a tactile and visual experience that deepens the connection to these stories. The delicate texture of the paper enhances the emotional depth of her work, preserving the fragile, raw beauty. Each photograph here is a fragment of a larger, ongoing dialogue, and also a tool of memory, connection, and, ultimately, preservation of stories that might otherwise remain hidden.
