>>>ANSA/ ANSA unveils PhotoANSA 2014
(ANSA) - Rome, December 12 - The ANSA news agency on Thursday presented the 10th annual edition of PhotoANSA, its traditional year-end book of photographic reportage. Unveiled at Palazzo Giustiniani with Italy's Senate Speaker Pietro Grasso, ANSA President Giulio Anselmi and Editor-in-chief Luigi Contu, PhotoANSA 2014 is portrait of a country on a roller coaster, showcasing contrasting images of hope and disillusionment, passion and indifference, civic pride and dishonesty.
Throughout the pages, and in Italy itself at the moment, opposites exist side by side in a system that seems to have found a perverse equilibrium. World Cup images of excited fans, faces painted in the colours of national flags, yet unaware of the impending loss clash with the expression of a dejected Mario Balotelli with headphones on his head at the airport immediately after Italy's elimination. A completely different mood is struck by a photo of giant-like cyclist Vincenzo Nibali celebrating his Tour de France victory on the Champs-Elysees, sixteen years after Marco Pantani's win.
The sporting year is a metaphor of Italy, unable to win as a team, yet still able to produce individual champions in many fields.
This is the era of man alone in the lead, the leitmotif of the millennium.
And PhotoAnsa 2014 showed that theme beginning with the many faces of Italian Premier Matteo Renzi.
The images of Renzi's first year in power testify, better than any other medium, the glimmer of hope brought to a disillusioned country, told through selfies taken in the streets with young and old alike.
But above all, they give a sense of the power of communication of a leader capable of moving forward, as seen in a photo of a smiling Renzi receiving the bell, at the traditional hand-over ceremony, from his predecessor Enrico Letta, whose expression is ice cold. "In Italy we have individuality but we have to learn how to be a team", Grasso said. "ANSA began to look carefully at pictures, photos and video"when much of the media did not give them due importance," Anselmi said. "Now we have a legacy that is part of our collective memory". Contu commented: "I thank colleagues who are struggling every day to give us the news that in some cases also ends up in the history books". Images of the war in Ukraine are part of history as well.
Faces of democracy advocates contrast with images of corpses lined up on the ground, and the desperation of a mother on her knees.
Though the features are different, the pain is the same in the Holy Land, where the terror surrounds armed and bewildered Palestinian children in a Gaza in flames.
In the background is a Europe up in the air, unable to act among empty Parliament seats and growing Euroskepticism.
Anger against Brussels is also growing in Italy, which seems to place hope elsewhere - represented by 1,800 new startups and industrious entrepreneurs in 2014 (five per day) in agriculture, sports, transport and clothing sectors.
A success is shown as the progeny of a great disaster seen in the salvaging of the Concordia wreck: a bather-filled Giglio coast returns to its original splendor thanks to the miraculous work of the engineers.
Italy's bright side shines in the majesty of the Colosseum restored and in the raised hands of Paolo Sorrentino with his Oscar in hand. The country will, hopefully, also be exalted in the Italian Pavilion at the Milan Expo 2014, as seen in the project's architectural rendering. The book PhotoANSA 2014 can be found at librophotoansa2014.ansa.it and downloaded for free for smartphones and tablets from the Apple Store and Google Play.
The sporting year is a metaphor of Italy, unable to win as a team, yet still able to produce individual champions in many fields.
This is the era of man alone in the lead, the leitmotif of the millennium.
And PhotoAnsa 2014 showed that theme beginning with the many faces of Italian Premier Matteo Renzi.
The images of Renzi's first year in power testify, better than any other medium, the glimmer of hope brought to a disillusioned country, told through selfies taken in the streets with young and old alike.
But above all, they give a sense of the power of communication of a leader capable of moving forward, as seen in a photo of a smiling Renzi receiving the bell, at the traditional hand-over ceremony, from his predecessor Enrico Letta, whose expression is ice cold. "In Italy we have individuality but we have to learn how to be a team", Grasso said. "ANSA began to look carefully at pictures, photos and video"when much of the media did not give them due importance," Anselmi said. "Now we have a legacy that is part of our collective memory". Contu commented: "I thank colleagues who are struggling every day to give us the news that in some cases also ends up in the history books". Images of the war in Ukraine are part of history as well.
Faces of democracy advocates contrast with images of corpses lined up on the ground, and the desperation of a mother on her knees.
Though the features are different, the pain is the same in the Holy Land, where the terror surrounds armed and bewildered Palestinian children in a Gaza in flames.
In the background is a Europe up in the air, unable to act among empty Parliament seats and growing Euroskepticism.
Anger against Brussels is also growing in Italy, which seems to place hope elsewhere - represented by 1,800 new startups and industrious entrepreneurs in 2014 (five per day) in agriculture, sports, transport and clothing sectors.
A success is shown as the progeny of a great disaster seen in the salvaging of the Concordia wreck: a bather-filled Giglio coast returns to its original splendor thanks to the miraculous work of the engineers.
Italy's bright side shines in the majesty of the Colosseum restored and in the raised hands of Paolo Sorrentino with his Oscar in hand. The country will, hopefully, also be exalted in the Italian Pavilion at the Milan Expo 2014, as seen in the project's architectural rendering. The book PhotoANSA 2014 can be found at librophotoansa2014.ansa.it and downloaded for free for smartphones and tablets from the Apple Store and Google Play.