Andrea Gabrieli

My name is Andrea Gabrieli, and I was born in Sestri Levante (Italy) in 1973. I hold a degree in Physics from the University of Genoa and currently work in the IT sector. My passion for landscape photography and travel accompanies me on hikes close to home as well as on journeys to the most remote corners of the planet. Photography means bringing the world into sharper focus and reinterpreting it, opening one’s heart to an alternative perspective. It is a blend of knowledge and beauty, a tension and projection toward what is yet to be, and a form of memory that preserves realities and cultures that are fading away.

Where and The winner picture is taken in Mongolia, during summer 2025. It shows an Eagle Hunter: a man in traditional Mongolian clothes, riding an horse, bringing an eagle on his arm, during an historical reenactment about how they hunted in the past. The eagle is used to hunt the prey and to bring it to the hunter. We were in Ôlgij, west Mongolia, near the Altai mountain range.

To show dynamicity and to fix the moment when the hunter is concentrated on searching the prey. I used a right exposure time, to have the figure still, but showing the movement of water and mud splashes.

I wished to show the strength and elegance of the hunters and his horse and his trained eagle.

To follow the hunters with my tele, anticipating and following the horse’s trajectory. I bit of luck has been useful too.

I love to show traditional and local cultures and events, looking for authenticity of lifestyle in every part of the world. I use to do some staged pictures, but I love more reportage, where photographer is invisible, trying to catch the purity of life.

I started as landscape and mountain photographer. I walked through glaciers in Karakorum range and glaciers on Alps, with my skis and an analogic camera. In the same time, I started to love humanity, like lives in ancient shops, taking pictures of men working, specially artisans. I started to go in the remote places of the planet: sub-Saharan tribes, high villages in Karakorum and Himalayan range, typical life in Asia (India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, Borneo and Philippines). I love to show how other people live, to bring to light the diversity of lifestyles and the possibility of peaceful coexistence between cultures, helping also children and elders in high mountain Karakorum villages with my foundation ‘Rise Hope’.

Ansel Adams, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Sebastião Salgado, Gianni Berengo Gardin, Steve McCurry.

A recognition to do more and better and to increase my low self-esteem.

Shoot with your heart and your own sensibility. Preserve traditions and cultures that are at risk of disappearing. During travels, listen more and judge less.