Verzone Paolo

Paris-based photographer Paolo Verzone was born in Turin, Italy in 1967. Since he began taking pictures at the age of 18, he has always divided his photography between portraiture and reportage.
Paolo Verzone is unclassifiable, which he likes. With a background in journalism, a field where he continues to work, he has long known that the printed page is not the only place to present a vision or point of view. Thus, alone or with his collaborator, Alessandro Albert, he has undertaken large scale projects that take an in-depth look into today’s world. The most remarkable includes his survey of seaside bathers along the Italian, Lithuanian, French and Finnish coasts. The project spanned many years.
During the past five years, he worked on a series of students' portraits from military academy throughout Europe. “Cadets” has been published by Editions de La Martinière and exhibited at the Hôtel des Invalides.

His intimate and strict portraits leave room for laughter while representing characters who become a funny but not always joyful reflection of our society. This “leisure society” he frames is neither in place or voided of its own caricature.
He was published in international magazines such as Time, Newsweek, Sunday Times Magazine, Wall Street Journal, The Independent, the Guardian, Le Monde, Vanity Fair, Geo. His works were awarded with several grants, among them: World Press Photo, American Photography, International Photography Awards. His images are in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London and the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris