In physics, once the ‘event horizon’ of a blackhole is reached, the gravitational pull is so intense that nothing, not even light, can escape its attraction. To observers it is the boundary between here and elsewhere, where everything vanishes from sight, just as many of the dramatic events of our world vanish from our view – and our conscience. Paolo Pellegrin (Rome, 1964) has captured many of these “points of no return.” Event Horizon, the exhibition currently taking place at Le Stanze della Fotografia, presents a scenographic installation that revisits key milestones in Pellegrin’s career. During over thirty years of work, largely associated with Magnum agency, his lens covered dramatic events such conflicts in Iraq, Israel and Lebanon, Nigerian women’s resilience vs. Boko Haram, the US-Mexico border, Guantanamo detainees, Lesbo island refugees, urban solitude during Covid, as well as Japan’s tsunami and Australia’s wildfires. 300 photographs cover a period from 1995 to 2023 and provide a detailed account of the fieldwork of one of the greatest photographers of our time.

Cover image: Emma runs through a field in front of the farmhouse, Château d’Oex, Switzerland 2020, Paolo Pellegrin / Magnum Photos