“All things in life that once existed tend to re-create themselves”.
Borderland is my attempt to reclaim an experience that has shaped my identity since my tender years. It is a place, a transition of age, a group of people, a way of living, a critical thinking, a stream of memories, and a set of disappointed expectations and potential ideas all at once. This small town on the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines borders everything to me, and it is this ambiguous dimension that drives me to a relentless search for traces of a time I have not lived enough or too much.
In my mind, my past blends with my present and suggests my future steps. As I listen to it, I’m not sure whether to let myself be carried away by the fresh wind – the same wind my grandfather and I used to enjoy in hot summer nights. As we sat on a wet meadow, marveling at the constellation, we talked about existentialism.
It turns out to be a process of deep redemption of my past and present selves while simultaneously producing an emotional tension that hovers between joy and pain. The aim of such research is to establish a dialogue between memory, reality, and dream, looking for fragments of an existence inherent to concepts of family, belonging, and growth.

Filippo Barbero (1992) is a photographer and visual artist based in Florence, Italy.
After undertaking and completing the legal path, he has been studying self-taught photography since 2017 to pursue a career as a photographer.
Since 2022, his work has been exhibited in national and international galleries, institutions and festivals such as Pinakothek der Moderne and ZIRKA Space in Munich (Der Grief 15th anniversary events); 254Forest in Brussels (PEP’s New Talents group show); Haute Photographie in Rotterdam and Amsterdam (GUP Exhibition for Fresh Eyes Talents); BASE in Milan (PhotoVogue Festival, Italian Panorama); Verzasca Photo Festival in Brione, Switzerland.
His project “Borderland” has also obtained numerous prizes and awards and has been a finalist in various calls, such as “Center Forward” of the Center For Fine Art Photo (Colorado, USA); the Urbanautica Institute Awards, Category: “People and Communities” by Urbanautica Institute (Italy); Critical Mass by Photolucida (Oregon, USA); Intarget Photolux Award of the Photolux Festival (Italy); Italian Panorama of Photo Vogue Festival (Italy), promoted by Vogue Italia.
He is one of the artists selected for the “LAND” artistic residency of OMNE (Osservatorio Mobile del Nord Est) whose works will be exhibited at the OMNE FEST 2025 and published in the OMNE series as the fourth volume entitled OMNE/LAND 2023–2025. He is one of the artists selected by Fotografia Europea for the “PHOTOGRAPH-ER” training program.
He was one of the first fifty photographers to be selected and invited to be part of the UNCONTAMINATED photographic NFT’s trading platform.
His work has been published in various national and international online and paper magazines, such as Vogue Italia; PhotoVogue; Der Grief; The Greatest Magazine; G.U.P Magazine; C41 Magazine; WITNESS, Fiiirst; Phases Magazine; IN FRAMES; The Pupil Sphere; Too Tired Project; ZONES Mag; urban planning; Nowhere Diary; Photo Room; Conceptual Projects; C4journal; photographic audio library; PHOTO IS:RAEL; Velveteyesmag; deadpancollection; Closure Magazine; Bad Print Mag; Atman Journal.