ISPA WINNERS 2022
SINGLE PHOTO
FINALIST
Valerio Bellavia
Gran Sasso Glacier (Abruzzo). An Ericson S-64 helicopter of the Rome Fire Brigade transports a 5 tons drill on the glacier to extract ice samples. The researchers of Ice Memory, an international research project sponsored by UNESCO, were able, for the first time, to collect a sample of ice about 27 meters deep which will allow in future the reconstruction of the past climate trends in central and southern Italy. The Gran Sasso Glacier, colloquially known as Calderone, is the southernmost glacier in Europe. Its reactivity to climate change allows us to collect critical data on the future evolution on climate trend. The Calderone is a residue of the ice age of the Quaternary. It stands in the heart of the Apennines, 40 km from the sea - its altitude varies between 2680 and 2800 meters MSL. Over the last 25 years, the glacier has shrunk, losing 9 meters of thickness and 65% of its extension. Today it is about 27 meters deep and every year is thickness decreases by one meter.
Biography
Valerio Bellavia was born in Rome in 1991. He has a degree in journalism and in 2020 he obtained a master's degree in Environmental Humanities with an experimental thesis on the consequences of climate change on subaltern communities on the Indian subcontinent. At the same time, he attended the school of photojournalism at the ISFCI (Institute of Photography) in Rome and began working as an assistant for several photographers. He documents change to preserve a historical memory of yesterday and to speak of the new ones to be created tomorrow.
FINALISTS
