THE BEAR
Francesco Sonetti is a freelance photographer born in Tuscany and based in Florence.
​
With over ten years of experience as an international corporate photographer and a specialist in wedding photography, he has worked across Europe, Asia, and the United States, collaborating with companies, institutions, and private clients.
​
In 2020, he was awarded the WPPI grant for his project on Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, which he presented at the annual WPPI meeting in Las Vegas. He collaborated with A.I.P.I. on a project on second-generation immigration in Bologna and later worked with RENA to promote photography courses.
​
Today, he is dedicated to documentary photography. His work focuses on environmental diseases and society's impact on the land.
​
Adopting a documentary style, he explores themes closely linked to society's impact on the environment and health, allowing him to take a political stance in the world. He perceives contemporary life and its contradictions as a symbol of the evolution of a consumer society in crisis. In his current projects, he explores ways to represent everyday life shaped by the political, economic, and ecological crises we are experiencing today.
​
He lived for several years in Berlin, where he encountered a profoundly different visual culture—an experience that broadened his perspective and refined his photographic language. Immersing himself in such a dynamic artistic and social reality influenced his research, leading him to develop an increasingly critical and layered approach to imagery and its narrative power.
After attending a technical institute, he left university to travel the world. Upon returning, he worked as a farmer in Tuscany, becoming a winery supervisor.
​
Something happened—though he still cannot quite recall what—that led him to study photography. He left his career in the wine industry and moved to Milan, where he worked as a photography assistant in a fashion studio. Eventually, he returned to Tuscany, where he launched his career as a freelance photographer, using it as a base to continue traveling and working worldwide.