Lassù (Up There)
A project on the alpine pastures of Valtellina
Valtellina’s Alpine Pastures and Rangelands in the Photographs of Beniamino Pisati
“In centuries past, people found in the mountains a place where they could continue to live and work in peace. As we approach the year 2000, it is still in the mountains that people will find refuge from a system that dehumanizes us and leaves little room for the true reasons for our existence: love, community, and work well done. The mountains have become a land to be reclaimed in order to live a better life.”.
Mario Rigoni Stern
The reflections shared by Mario Rigoni Stern, author of the unforgettable The Sergeant in the Snow, at a conference on Italy’s mountain regions held in Cuneo back in 1989, now, many years later, sound almost prophetic, anticipating challenges that were then still unforeseen. They confirm, once again, how the mountains are emerging as one of the most compelling environments to rediscover and inhabit in a future that is already here.
Beniamino Pisati has devoted an evocative, award-winning visual narrative to the mountains of Valtellina, in northern Lombardy, a land where he has lived for many years despite his Milanese roots. His work conveys a vision of the mountains as a refuge for the soul.
Pisati’s reportage is unique in its field. First, because it revolves around the authentic life of today’s alpine pastures; and second, because it was created in Valtellina, an area that not only produces Bitto and Storico Ribelle—cheeses with ageing characteristics found nowhere else in the world—but also has the highest concentration of active alpine pastures in the entire Alpine region, both in number and in the livestock brought up to graze.
Milk is still processed at high altitude, since the morphology of the landscape makes it difficult to transport it down to dairies on the valley floor.
Alongside its deeply rooted culture of cheese-making—as well as wine and bresaola—Valtellina is also seeing the development of a new form of slow tourism, particularly at higher altitudes. New low-impact hiking and cycling trails are being created, allowing visitors to explore the landscape while also providing useful infrastructure for the people who work and manage the alpine pastures.
Beyond the precise geographical setting that provides the backdrop to the images collected in a portfolio entitled Lassù, the result of a decade-long project developed in close contact with both the beauty and the harshness of the mountains and the people who inhabit them, Pisati’s gaze portrays the landscapes and people of the contemporary Alpine world. Although deeply rooted in a specific territory, they speak to the viewer through a universal language.
The shepherds and cheesemakers portrayed among pastures, forests, streams and stone huts—the protagonists of a fragile microcosm, yet one imbued with an almost sacred energy—become symbols of an ancient, slow-paced way of life, shaped by sacrifice and, at the same time, strikingly modern. A culture that over the centuries has preserved memories, knowledge and a capacity for resilience that have now regained an urgent relevance.
The project aims to “bring together all those who share a passion for the mountains, without distinction,” while also serving as a powerful means of promoting Valtellina. At the same time, it is a cultural project with a broader significance within the programme of initiatives marking the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists, to be celebrated in 2026.
Fiammetta Bonazzi
L'autore
Beniamino Pisati, born in Milan in 1977, lives in Sondrio, Lombardy.
A freelance professional photographer, he specialises in geographical reportage and regularly collaborates with travel magazines and international agencies. For over ten years, his work has documented the close relationship between people and the environment around the world.
He has received several national and international photography awards, including winning Travel Photographer of the Year twice, in 2016 and 2021.
Since 2009, he has organised travel photography workshops in Italy and abroad, focusing on photographic storytelling.
Awards won with the project “Lassù”
ITALIAN STREET PHOTO FESTIVAL 2022 — 1st PRIZE
Paolo Pellegrin (Magnum Photos)
“The delicacy of the photographer’s gaze, his closeness to his subjects—not only physical but also emotional—and the consistency of his visual language are recognised for their ability to bring to life a timeless story.”
TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR 2021 — 1st PRIZE
“Telling the story of people’s lives is often easier when they are filled with emotion and adventure, but Beniamino’s portfolio succeeds in doing so through an apparently unchanging reality. It offers a fascinating vision of simplicity and isolation, using striking and unconventional compositions to capture the essence of this way of life.”
URBAN PHOTO AWARD 2020 — 1st PRIZE
Alex Webb (Magnum Photos)
“Beniamino Pisati’s photographs of Valtellina share a deep affection for the Italian landscape, much like the work of Luigi Ghirri and his dear friend Gianni Celati (from Sondrio). Looking at Pisati’s photographs, one cannot help but wonder whether we are witnessing a disappearing world: with its cows, whose cheese tastes of the Alpine herbs they graze on, and its farmers, whose traditional hats echo the peaks of the surrounding mountains. Through Pisati’s eyes, it is as if we are seeing this remote rural landscape for ‘the first and last time,’ to quote Ghirri.”
Exhibitions
Helsinki — Helsinki Photo Festival Exhibition (2024)
Treviso — Fondazione Cassamarca, Casa dei Carraresi (2023)
Legnano (Milan) — European Photography Festival (2023)
Marmirolo (Mantua) — Marmirolo Photo Festival (2022)
Castellanza (Varese) — Terre di Lombardia, Villa Pomini (2022)
Bibbiena (Arezzo) — Centro Italiano della Fotografia d’Autore (2021)
London — Travel Photographer of the Year Exhibition (2022)
