Simone Donati

Simone Donati (born in Florence in 1977) is an Italian documentary photographer and a founding member of the TerraProject collective, with which he has been developing documentary photography projects in Italy and abroad since 2006. His visual research focuses on themes of identity, politics, and social and territorial transformation, with an approach that weaves together critical observation and strong narrative grounding.

Alongside his work with TerraProject, he has developed long-term personal projects, collaborating with national and international publications such as National Geographic, Le Monde Magazine, Newsweek, Vanity Fair, Geo, La Repubblica, and Internazionale. His work has been recognized with awards and publications that have helped establish his profile as one of the most authoritative voices in contemporary Italian documentary photography.

In 2015 he published, with TerraProject, the book Still Here (Postcart Edizioni), dedicated to the social and cultural transformations of contemporary Italy, while in 2019 Legionaries (Cesura Publish) was released, the result of a decade-long project on the reality of neo-fascist movements in Italy. His works address delicate subject matter with clarity and rigor, always maintaining a balance between testimony and narrative construction.

His work has been exhibited at international festivals and institutions, including Paris Photo, the Centre de la Photographie in Geneva, the Fotografia Europea festival in Reggio Emilia, and Le Mois de la Photo in Paris. In recent years he has directed his research toward an increasingly deep reflection on the relationship between community and territory, exploring the subtle bonds that connect memory, belonging, and change.