An exhibition that began in the streets of Santu Lussurgiu and opened in Oristano in February has taken the international photography scene in Los Angeles by storm. Giuseppe Tamponi, a passionate photographer, has won first prize in the "Event-Social Cause" category at the International Photography Awards (IPA 2026), one of the world's most prestigious photography competitions. Since 2003, each year it has attracted thousands of submissions from professional, amateur, and student photographers from around the world. The awards ceremony will be held today in Athens, where the overall winner of each of the eleven categories, who will receive a prize of €5,000, will be announced.
The winning project bears the evocative title "Mala tempora currunt," a Latin phrase that alone anticipates the weight of the exhibition's message. "I chose this title thinking back to the literature I studied at the De Castro Classical High School," Tamponi explains, "which, unfortunately, also describes our present well." A present marked by war, the theme around which the entire exhibition revolves, comprised of ten photographs taken during a street theater performance staged in Santu Lussurgiu by the Theatre En Vol Company of Sassari. "The shots capture the intensity of a performance built precisely on the drama of conflict," the artist explains, "demonstrating how photography can capture the emotion of theater in a timeless moment." But that's not all: first place was joined by a second prize in the "Event - Concert" category, awarded to a shot titled "Sophie Soliveau," "actually an inappropriate title," explains Tamponi, "because it only reports the name of the first of the ten artists portrayed in the work."
This international recognition recognizes not only the technical quality of the shots, but also their ability to reach a distant audience, beyond the borders of Sardinia and Italy, confirming that photography, when born from an authentic gaze, knows no bounds.
