Simona Pezzano
moderated by Stefano Riba
in collaboration with Foto Forum Bozen

Every day we are flooded with images: we scroll through photos on social media, watch videos in the news, and immerse ourselves in visual content from everyday entertainment. We scroll, watch, and react to images—often without pausing to reflect. With the growing importance of visual media, from social platforms to news broadcasts and the entertainment industry, images today shape our perception of reality more than ever before. An image is never neutral. It can persuade, deceive, move us, or even lie. And yet we continue to treat it as evidence—as something trustworthy. Starting from a journey through time, we trace the origins of photography—an invention that revolutionized the way we see and think about the world and has profoundly shaped Western culture. The aim is therefore not only to understand how images work, but also to learn to look at them with greater attention, critical thinking, and curiosity. Because today, being able to read images is just as important as understanding words.