Gianpietro Pucciariello

"Photography is a tool to give voice to the voiceless and to give light to shadows within ourselves and in society“ Hello, my name is Gianpietro Pucciariello and I am an Italian visual storyteller and participatory facilitator based in London. My main work focuses on pushing the boundaries between social impact, dialogue and human conditions. This means that I work following ethical conduct to bring dignity and hope to people's faces and lives. Through my work, I want to celebrate, using empathy, respect but also playfulness, the beauty of the human soul along with its daily struggles and vulnerabilities. I use photography as a medium and a tool to give a voice to marginalised communities and organisations that want to address social and environmental issues in the places they operate by telling stories that mainstream media formats do not often tell, to encourage critical consciousness and influence policy. To do this I usually combine four themes, 1) Human beings, 2) places, 3) food 4) actions for impact, and five elements 1) focused questions, 2) metaphors, 3) storytelling, 4) Participation 5) Action-Driven Challenges. I grew up in the Lake Como area, where I got used to beauty already at an early age, in a family that, despite not being particularly affluent, provided me with a rich and safe place for growing my never-ending curiosity and learning, the value of an authentic soul, and the fundamental importance of social justice. I was lucky enough to have my mother, a kindergarten teacher, leading me by example with playfulness, self-expression and empathy and my father, working for the Italian railways, sustaining my development with strict rules and pushing my need for achievements, but always supporting my learnings with travels and books. I grew up as a really serious and introverted child - many people wouldn't believe so, as I developed more into a shy extroverted character through the years - with a huge inner world and having difficulties expanding outside in words. This is how I first discovered art and particularly photography. What I liked about taking pictures was mainly the idea of using an organic process for self-expression and for absorbing, summarising, explaining and creating knowledge around the social and environmental causes I cared for, and I was involved in since my teenage years. My need for expression became even more evident when my father was diagnosed with a rare neurodegenerative disease in 2003, after 5 years of unusual emotional outbursts, apathy and depression, tremors and personality changes. I put myself more and more on the front line of volunteering in the communities I was part of, and I focus my University Studies on the social sector and welfare, but at the same time, it became even more difficult for me to communicate my inner feelings on the outside. Despite this difficulty, I'm glad I took Economics as a Major subject. This gave me the chance to reflect and work deeply on human behaviour, motivational science, mental models of choice and root causes of oppression. Though, Economics gave me fewer opportunities to express my artistic side. I moved to London in my late twenties, and after a few years, I got stuck between a career I felt detached from, and together with my family situation, I got into a period of severe anxiety and inner chaos. One evening in October 2012 thought, returning from work, I found a leaflet about a course in photojournalism with the City & Guild in Tower Hamlets. That's how my journey in photography restarted. With and through photography, I restarted again to explore in deep the world around me, the condition of human beings and the causes I cared about. Even more important, I rediscovered myself, and my artistic skills, and boosted my self-confidence. Without rediscovering photography I wouldn't have gone back to practice facilitation and I wouldn't discover and loved other practices I work with right now, like coaching, social impact and innovation consulting. Without photography, I would have never become an entrepreneur and I wouldn't have nurtured other creative skills, like sketch noting & doodling. Photography helped me meet inspiring human beings that became friends, mentors, and some of the most important people in my life. That night in 2012 I drew a line in my life with a simple decision. I strongly believe that photography is one of the best ways we have to discover ourselves and the world around us, focusing on the present moment, one shot at a time. This is why I want to support you in using photography differently.