How to photograph energy?

What is energy and, most of all, how to represent it? This is the question the 2022 Driving Energy Award tried to answer, a free competition open to all photographers in Italy and set up by Terna to favour the cultural promotion and development of the country and new talents. The project has become a free exhibition featuring the 35 finalists and 5 winners set up at Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome.

Three are the key words that can be used to describe the initiative of the Italian national transmission grid operator: the first two are without doubt art and energy. The third is innovation, because the exhibition was also the first project by Terna and Palazzo delle Esposizioni to reach the metaverse though a virtual 3D space where users can move using their own customised avatars, observing the works exhibited halfway between their computer screens and the building that houses them.

But let’s return to the initial questions: what is energy and how to represent it? The Award, which received the Medal of the Presidency of the Italian Republic, invited photographers to set their eyes on the contemporary world in order to render an artistic vision of energy and of Terna's mission. By looking at the works exhibited, a message strikes us: energy is everywhere around us and its representation depends on the eyes of the beholder. It can thus be a long love story between two acrobats constantly balancing on top of each other such as in "I Ginestra" by the artist Paolo Ventura, winner of the Senior Award. But it can also be invisibility, the symbiosis of a fungus and an alga essential for the survival of an eco-system as immortalized by the photographer Gaia Renis, winner of the Youth Award for her “Stereocaulon vesuvianum”. Energy is also our everyday life, the urban landscape of an ever-evolving Rome thanks to the interaction between man and space. And it is thanks to "Camminare e camminare..." (Walking and Walking), inspired by "Contemporary normality", that Mohamed Keita received a special mention.

We talked to the three artists - Andrea Botto, winner of the Terna special mention, and Eva Frapiccini, winner of the special mention for "Circularity", were also among the winners - to try and understand which aspects and colours energy took on before their careful eyes and world-inspecting gazes, which they photographed to capture its essence.

Paolo Ventura and the human side of energy. The winner of the Senior Prize Paolo Ventura uses images and reinterprets them trying to create visions of contemporary reality. This is what he did also in I Ginestra, showing how much energy there can be in the love and balance two people can build over time. “I chanced upon a family photo album from the 1930s in Milan which depicts two people who used to be a duo of acrobats as well as a romantic couple their whole life long. The book contains a series of photos of a man and woman who spent their entire existence balanced on top of each other. There were photos of him balancing her on his arms, but also vice-versa,” reports Ventura.

The photos show a love that lasted sixty years, down to a last moving image. «The last photo shows only the woman, in her 80s, balancing on a table. He is no longer there», explains the artist, who goes on to explain why the album became the main inspiration for his work. «I used the images of these two lowers balancing on top of each other and I arranged them in an urban scenario I created to preserve their story and their balance. Their relationship is pure energy. Energy based on love, on physical strength - because it takes a lot of it to do what they did - but also on balance. They had a relationship as equals, he holds her and vice-versa, which was very unusual at the time. In those images, I saw a beautiful message of strength and energy. Their extraordinary love and professional story is proof that sometimes the synergy between individuals creates wonderful energies which, through my work, I wanted to protect, enabling this relationship to last forever», concludes Ventura.

Gaia Renis: the invisibility and essentiality of energy. «Before taking part in the “Driving Energy 2022” competition I had never dreamed of defining my photographs as "art". To me, they were a pleasure, a hobby. This award was my beginning», said Gaia Renis, 23, winner of the Youth award for her work Stereocaulon vesuvianum. «Everything started spontaneously, it was a period when I was looking for inspiration, a spark and, when I stumbled upon the competition organized by Terna, I understood it was the right one. I jumped into it and it went much better than expected. In addition to becoming passionate about the topic of energy, I also moved closer to Terna’s mission, I understood what it does and how important it is: managing the national electricity system and trying to steer it towards sustainability and energy transition is of fundamental importance. This is also why I decided to try and give my personal representation of energy».

That of Gaia Renis is energy invisible to the naked eye, yet very powerful: in her work, she represented Stereocaulon vesuvianum, a lichen from Somma-Vesuvius formed by a fungus and an alga that survive in symbiosis thanks to a reciprocal exchange of energy. The photosynthesis of the alga feeds the fungus which, in turn, supplies the alga with water and mineral salts. «I tried to put something we do not see under the lens, to penetrate a phenomenon, to show how the exchange of energy between two elements enables the survival of an ecosystem. It happens with lichens but, if we think about it, it happens with humanity in general», explained Renis. «The symbiosis between the fungus and alga felt like the perfect image to metaphorically represent how energy is born only from exchange, from the collaboration of two elements that must join forces to live», she concluded.

Mohamed Keita: energy as a source of survival of man and the transformation of the urban landscape. In the case of Mohamed Keita, it is not just his work entitled Camminare e Camminare... that shows us what energy is. He himself is pure energy. The energy with which he faced terrible times and how he managed to turn those difficulties into art. «I was born in the Ivory Coast and arrived in Italy in 2010. I was 17 and, to flee the civil war, I crossed many countries and faced many difficulties along the way. But it was precisely during those moments that I started looking at others and developing an interest in people and the reality that surrounds me. What I went through opened my eyes. It made me understand that we all play our part in this world», explains Keita, who then specifies: «Why a photographer? Because I want to illustrate to others what I see and also reveal something about me through my vision».

Once in Italy, Keita lived on the streets. During that period, however, he also frequented a centre where, every Friday, two students from the Roman School of Photography held courses. «So I started to get interested in photography», he recalls. «Then I never stopped. I started studying and, over the years, photography became my work». His journey led him to the special mention received at the Driving Energy Award 2022, in which he participated with a triptych of photographs taken during his walks around Rome. In his work, Keita represents two fundamental characteristics of electricity: the importance for the survival of man and the strength with which it can transform the urban landscape, enabling its evolution. «I illustrate everyday life, energy that forms part of and nourishes the city. My photos show the energy of people and of everything that surrounds them. There is no need to invent anything, our everyday lives are filled with energy», reflects the photographer.