5 June │ Talk: Un’immagine è prova di cosa? – Simona Pezzano

Talk (IT): What is an image evidence of?
5.06.2026,  18:00
With Simona Pezzano
Moderated by Stefano Riba
In collaboration with Analogue Photo Festival, Lumen Museum

Every day we are overwhelmed by images: we scroll through photographs on social media, watch videos on the news, and immerse ourselves in visual content as part of everyday entertainment. We scroll, watch, and react to images—often without stopping to think.

With the growing centrality of visual media, from social platforms to news outlets and the entertainment industry, images today influence more than ever the way we understand reality. An image is never neutral. It can persuade, deceive, move us emotionally, even lie. And yet, we continue to treat it as evidence: something credible. Beginning with a journey through time, we will retrace the birth of photography, an invention that revolutionized the way we see and imagine the world, leaving a profound mark on Western culture.

The aim, therefore, is not only to understand how images work, but also to learn how to look at them with greater attention, critical awareness, and curiosity. Because today, knowing how to interpret images is just as important as knowing how to read words.

Simona Pezzano divides her work between research and teaching in visual culture (IULM University) and EU international cooperation projects, including: Edu4 Migration 2024–26; CLIP (Critical Visual Media Literacy and emPowerment) 2022–24; and PAgES (Post-Crisis Journalism in Post-Crisis Libya) 2019–21.

She serves on the editorial board of EmergingSeries Journal – Inside New Media and Digital Technologies; is a member of the scientific committee of the journal Il de Martino; and is part of the editorial staff of Cinéma&Cie International Film Studies Journal. She is also a member of the Self Media Lab. Scritture, Performance, Tecnologie del Sé, founded in 2013 by Federica Villa together with Fabrizio Fiaschini at the Department of Humanities of the University of Pavia.

Among her publications:

S. Pezzano, Campo lungo. Memoria visuale dall’archivio della Lega di Cultura di Piadena, Mimesis, 2021. S. Pezzano, “Scienza Fantastica e Urania: atterrò in edicola e non se ne andò mai più. Istruzioni per il futuro in edizione italiana,” in S. Arcagni & S. Pezzano (eds.), “Urania” e gli immaginari tecnologici in Italia, ES Journal, 7/V, Kaplan, 2025.

Location: Foto Forum
Language: Italian