• Matteo de Mayda

Stories

The first time, Iceland

In summer 2018 Iceland became the smallest nation ever to participate in the FIFA World Cup. After taking part in the 2016 European Championships - and surprising everyone by making it into the quarter finals - Russia 2018 was another great occasion for the men’s team to shine. Iceland was thrilled. And when we say Iceland, we refer to about 330.000 people. Rather than focusing on the technical sides of the game, we told the Icelandic football story as a cultural phenomenon, with an angle that could appeal to sport fans but also to the general public, in Italy and worldwide.

Vo’, a community gets tested

Vo’ is a small town in Veneto, Northern Italy, in which the first European victim of COVID-19 was registered in February 2020. By testing all its inhabitants early on, it has managed to stop the contagion and has now become a living laboratory to study the Coronavirus.

It Was Sea

During the night between 12 and 13 November 2019 Venice faced one of the most serious emergencies ever experienced. The high tide reached 187 centimeters, making it the second highest ever after the famous “Acqua Granda” of 1966. More than 85% of the city was submerged and the estimated cost for Venice was €1bn. According to a large study by the American non-profit organization Climate Central, Venice will end up underwater by 2050.

Portfolio

stadio-luigi-ferraris-genova-2 Luigi Ferraris Stadium (Marassi). The stadium designed by the architect Vittorio Gregotti, one of the most important Italian architects and urban planners of the twentieth century, who died of Coronavirus. Marassi Stadium is the Vittorio Gregotti main sporting work, transformed for the 1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy and today hosting the matches of the Serie A teams: Sampdoria and Genoa. Genova, Italy, 2020
villa-foscari Villa Foscari, designed by Andrea Palladio in 1559 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Mira, Venice, Italy, 2019
bobo-vieri-summer-cup Bobo Vieri Summer Cup. Jesolo, Italy, 2019
coronavirus-in-italy-a-group-of-refugees-turn-to-make-protectiv Talking Hands, a migrant-run design lab, turn to make protective masks against COVID-19. This is Lamin Seidi, 29, Gambia - a tailor of Talking Hands. Treviso, Italy, 2020
de-mayda_portfolio2021_003 The shipyards of Viareggio which, since the late 1970s, has become the superyacht-building hub of the world. Viareggio, Italy, 2021
stefano-chuka-okaka Dacia Arena. Stefano Chuka Okaka, forward for Udinese. Udine, Italy, 2019
de-mayda_portfolio2021_018 Giovanni Franzoni, young promise of Italian skiing team. Sulden, Italy, 2020
italy-national-basketball-team Daniel Hackett (CSKA Mosca), Marco Belinelli (San Antonio Spurs) and Luigi Datome (Fenerbahçe), basketball players of the Italian national team. Verona, Italia, 2019.
frecce-tricolori-2 Training of The Frecce Tricolori. Rivolto, Codroipo, Italia, 2019
fondriest Maurizio Fondriest. Madonna di Campiglio, Trento, Italia, 2019
didier-kassai%c2%a8 Pk0 Plaza. Bangui, Central African Republic, 2019
frecce-tricolori Training of The Frecce Tricolori. Rivolto, Codroipo, Italia, 2019
bellinelli-italy-national-basketball-team Marco Belinelli (San Antonio Spurs), basketball player of the Italian national team. Verona, Italy, August 2019.
coronavirus-fase-2-a-venezia Erika, 31 years old, gardener at the Cooperativa Sociale Laguna Fiorita that integrates disabled people into the labour market. Venice, Italy, 2020
venetian-cafes-are-closing Grancaffè Quadri. The cafes of Piazza San Marco lower the shutters: it is economically unsustainable to remain open. For the sector, year 2020 will close with a loss of 26 billion euros: 27% of the total. Venice, Italy, 2020
simone-moro-e-tamara-lungen Simone Moro e Tamara Lungen prepare for the next mission in the terraXcube. Bozen, Italy. 2019
de-mayda_portfolio2021_027 Irene, 23, graduated from the University of Nairobi with honors. Today, with the help of Mani Tese, she explains to women the advantages of giving birth in the hospital and holds courses in the two local schools at Lake Baringo, where she teaches girls about the risks associated with genital mutilation and early marriages, which are still very popular practices spread among the Ilchamus community. Kenya, 2018
de-mayda_portfolio2021_005 Stanley is the head of an Ilchamus community that lived on the shores of Lake Baringo until ten years ago. The Ilchamus lived in dignity with fishing and sheep farming, then the neighboring Pokot, impoverished by the drought, began to raid neighboring communities, stealing livestock, burning houses and killing indiscriminately. Baringo Lake, Rift Valley, Kenya, 2018
de-mayda_portfolio2021_022 The FIS Alpine World Ski Championships 2021 were held from 8–21 February in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. Cortina, Italy, 2021
stadio-giuseppe-meazza-san-siro-milano San Siro Stadium, officially known as Stadio Giuseppe Meazza. Milan, Italy, 2020
superstrada-pedemontana-veneta Antonio Faronato is one of the dispossessed by the Pedemontana Veneta Highway, the largest public work currently in construction in Italy. Antonio before the expropriation had 12 hectares of land with corn, soy, wheat and 70 cows. Mussolente, Vicenza, Italy, 2019
de-mayda_portfolio2021_011 Sulden, a mountain village in South Tyrol, northern Italy, where the Italian ski team trains. Sulden, Italy, 2020
mario-draghi-italian-prime-minister Mario Draghi, President of the European Central Bank. Assago, Milan, Italy, 2017
de-mayda_portfolio2021_019 Until a decade ago, Salome Mwangi was one of the many people struggling for subsistence in the Molo area in western Kenya. Today she has brought to life indigenous products that had been largely forgotten, including amaranth, black nightshade and local varieties of cabbage, beans, squash, carrots and tomatoes. Mau Forest, Molo, Kenya, 2018
stadio-luigi-ferraris-genova Luigi Ferraris Stadium (Marassi). The stadium designed by the architect Vittorio Gregotti, one of the most important Italian architects and urban planners of the twentieth century, who died of Coronavirus. Marassi Stadium is the Vittorio Gregotti main sporting work, transformed for the 1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy and today hosting the matches of the Serie A teams: Sampdoria and Genoa. Genova, Italy, 2020
de-mayda_portfolio2021_004 The shipyards of Viareggio which, since the late 1970s, has become the superyacht-building hub of the world. Viareggio, Italy, 2021

Matteo de Mayda (Treviso, 1984) is a Venice-based photographer represented by Contrasto, focused on reportage and social and environmental causes. His visual research focuses on documentary photography and portraits, focused on reportage and social and environmental causes. He participated in several exhibitions, including at United Nations (Geneva, Switzerland, 2013) at Venice Biennale of Architecture (Venice, Italy, 2016) and Head On Photo Festival (Sidney, Australia, 2020). In 2019 he published “Era Mare”, a book about the high water in Venice, whose proceeds went totally to the shopkeepers who needed help. Awarded among the winners of the “REFOCUS” call by MIBACT – Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities for his work on Covid-19. He was selected by ARTRIBUNE magazine as the best young Italian photographer of 2020 and in 2021 he was selected among the emerging authors of the European Union’s “Futures Photography” program.

Venice, Italy

More info

Books

Era Mare. bruno. 2019

Awards

2021. FUTURES 2021 talent
2020. Best young photographer of the year, according to Artribune
2020. Winner of REFOCUS award by MiBACT with La Triennale di Milano and MUFOCO
2020. Finalist at the Head On Photo Awards
2020. Winner at Inner Outlook
2019. Finalist at the National Geographic Prize (Cortona on the Move Festival)
2008 and 2014. First prize at the Bevilacqua La Masa

Exhibitions & Screenings

2021. MUFOCO, Milan (Italy)
2021. La Triennale, Milan (Italy)
2020. Lector in Fabula, Conversano (Italy)
2020. Photobook Week Aarhus (Denmark)
2020. Fotobok Festival, Oslo (Norway)
2020. Head On Photo Festival, Sydney (Australia)
2019-2020- The Gallery by Generali, Milan (Italy)
2019. La Fabbrica dello Zucchero, Rovigo (Italy)
2017. Gwangju Biennale (South Korea)
2017. Palazzo Santa Chiara, Rome (Italy)
2016. 15th Architecture Biennale, Venice (Italy)
2015. Museo dell’Università la Sapienza, Roma (Italy)
2014-2015. Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, Venice (Italy)
2014. URP, Turin (Italy)
2014. National Architecture/Design Centre (Sweden)
2013. United Nations, Geneva (Switzerland)