Paolo Pellegrin

 Paolo Pellegrin was born on March 11, 1964, in Rome. He worked on many projects such as photographing people in Italy, Balkans, and Bosnia. Another one of his projects was taking pictures of kids after the war in Bosnia, while also traveling to different countries such as Mexico, Kenya, and Zimbabwe to photograph AIDS/HIV. He's an extremely decorated photographer who has won many awards. Some of them include 10 World Press Photo Awards, Lecia Medal of Excellence, Hansel Mieth Prize, W. Euguene Smith Grant, Robert Capa Gold, and the Lecia European Publishers Award for Photography. 

This is a picture Paolo took of a Ukrainian conscript being trained before being sent to war against Russia in 2023. This picture perfectly encapsulates the suddenness of the conflict and the complete upheaval of the lives of these Ukrainians who have no choice but to fight to protect their families and their country. This portrait seems to convey the dread this soldier feels while training, like they know what's coming but are hopeless to stop it. It's a beautifully tragic photo that encapsulates the fear, uncertainty, and desperation humans feel when they are at the end of their ropes. The way he stares into somewhere unseen makes it look like he is visualizing his future and is subsequently in despair over it. 

This picture depicts a mass burial site discovered after Ukrainian soldiers liberated one of their towns from Russian occupation. This site in particular held about 400 citizens who were murdered by foreign forces. The context of this photo and the way it looks creates an absolutely harrowing and haunting tone. The black and white kind of signifies the passing of the people to me, and lonely crosses stuck on the ground make the whole photo look somber. After knowing how many people were killed and put into this grave makes it both disturbing and visually interesting to look at. Paolo does an amazing job capturing the essence of this event, and this photo is able to convey to me the sense of despair this sudden event caused.