Tuesday April 4 from 6.30 pm
Mattia Balsamini will be at Micamera to present his latest book:
Protege Noctem (Witty Books, 2023)

Raffaele Panizza, co-author of the publication, will also be present.

For all of us, blinded by the fragments of billions of artificial lights (ALAN: Artificial Light At Night), the night sky has become a tarnished mosaic, an impostor of bygone eras. 83% of the world’s population has never seen the Milky Way, the galaxy in which we live. And in megacities like Shanghai, home to the world’s largest astronomical museum, 95% of the stars are invisible to the naked eye.

Artificial lights, even LED lights, release a blue spectrum that dazzles the nocturnal ecosystem and disrupts the human circadian cycle – our endocrine-inspired rhythm of sleep and wakefulness – fostering the darkening of diseases such as breast and prostate cancer, diabetes and depression.
Epidemiologists agree that the disappearance of night – the obstruction of night darkness – threatens us as much as pollution, alcohol and tobacco. An alarmed MEP in his document Biodiversity Strategy 2030: Bringing nature back into our lives writes: “We call on the Commission to implement an ambitious plan to significantly reduce the outdoor use of artificial light by 2030.”

The natural world is also suffering: migratory birds fly off course, entire species of insects are threatened with extinction and foliage is completely taken by surprise in the winter.
That is why, defending the dark, averting its apocalypse, is a revolutionary battle in the ecological war we all face. Protege Noctem documents the alliance that scientists and citizens have formed to mobilise against the disappearance of the night and its creatures.

The project is among the two winners of festival Fotografia Europea 2023, and it will be exhibited there from April.

Witty Books, 2023
Hardcover, 21×28,5 cm
200 pages, b/w and color photographs
English text

You can get your copy here

Born in Pordenone – Italy. Balsamini moved to Los Angeles in 2008, where he began his studies at Brooks Institute of Photography with a concentration in advertising photography. In 2010 he began working at David LaChapelle’s studio as a studio assistant and archivist. In 2011, after obtaining a BA with honorable mention, he returned to Italy. He has been teaching photography at IUAV University of Venice as well as photographing extensively technology and its sociological implications. Over the years he has carried out personal and editorial projects for institutions such as MIT, NASA and the Institute of Forensic Medicine University of Zurich.
His images reveal interest in people, their stories and the functional aspects of technology. His work has been exhibited at the Milan Triennale, MAXXI, the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Foundation, and the Italian Cultural Institute in San Francisco. He is currently represented by the photo agency Contrasto.

Forty-nine years old and two children, Raffaele Panizza is a journalist, creative, curator and story-designer who writes about current affairs, culture, architecture and adventure for leading Italian and international magazines: Wired, Vanity Fair, D, Style-Corriere della Sera, AD, Interni, The Good Life, National Geographic and New YorkTimes Magazine. A graduate in Philosophy, he has published five books, written and hosted the podcast series Of love and style for Spotify as well as having signed communication and curatorial projects for important Italian and international companies in the cultural, technological, financial and lifestyle fields.
A frequent guest on the Mediaset, Sky and RAI channels, he was Piero Chiambretti’s journalistic consultant, taught Communication at the Cattolica University in Milan and is the editorial director of the uTrend television channel.