Simone Donati

Simone Donati (1977) was born in Florence, Italy, where he lives and works. In 2005 he completed the three-year course in photography at the Fondazione Studio Marangoni in Florence. After an internship at the Magnum Photos agency in New York City, in 2006 he started working in the field of documentary photography. In the past years his attention has focused on the political and social situation of Italy.
Simone in 2011 was shortlisted at Fotografia Festival Roma, at Voies Off in Arles and at the OjodePez Award for Human Values with “Valley of Angels”. In 2010 he received the 3rd place at the Ponchielli prize with his long term project “Welcome to Berlusconistan”. In 2009 he was chosen as “Merit Winner” at the Fujifilm Distinctions Awards and was selected as one of the three finalists in the portrait category of the 2008 Sony World Photography Awards.
His photographs have been part of solo and group shows in Italy and abroad and have been published in the main italian and international magazines, among which Le Monde Magazine, Newsweek and Newsweek Japan, L’Espresso, Internazionale, Vanity Fair Italy, GEO Italy and Monocle.
He is one of the founding members of the collective TerraProject, since 2006 working on social, political and environmental issues in Italy and abroad.