About | Maurizio Milesi

Portrait & Documentary

Photographer

EXPHLORER

EXPHLORER depicts 4 sides of my persona: Photographer, Author, Mountaineer, Sailor.

By hovering with a mouse or tapping with a smartphone, you can see the 4 quarters become whole.

Maurizio Milesi

Maurizio Milesi (1993) is an Italian documentary photographer whose work explores the relationship between people, geography, and responsibility. Trained in Communication Sciences, he developed an early interest in portraiture as a tool for understanding identity, vulnerability, and human presence within broader social contexts.

In 2020, he created Epicentro, a portrait-based project developed in the Seriana Valley (Bergamo) during the first wave of Covid-19. By focusing on faces and gazes rather than events, the work sought to reveal the psychological impact of the epidemic on a community at its epicenter. The project was exhibited in several cities and later published as a book.

In recent years, his practice has expanded toward environmental and social documentary work, where portraiture remains central but is placed in dialogue with fragile landscapes and human intervention. In 2025, he joined the Norwegian NGO In The Same Boat, spending three months sailing through the Arctic to document their cleanup missions against plastic pollution. This experience marked a turning point in his research, shifting his focus toward climate responsibility, collective action, and the emotional motivations behind environmental engagement.

Today, his work sits at the intersection of portraiture, environmental storytelling, and social geography. Through long-term projects, he investigates how individuals and communities inhabit, transform, and care for the places they depend on — using photography as a way to observe, listen, and build connection.

How I work

My practice is rooted in long-term immersion. With a background in sailing, I am able to embed within maritime expeditions and remote field operations for extended periods, often working as part of the crew. This position allows me to document from within, experiencing the same conditions as those I photograph, rather than reporting from a distance. Access to Arctic clean-up missions and similar environments depends on trust-based relationships developed over time. While I embed operationally, my editorial perspective remains independent: immersion serves as a method to deepen understanding and reveal stories that would otherwise remain unseen beyond the immediate circle of participants.

PORTABLE, PORTRAITABLE ®

PORTABLE, PORTRAITABLE was an idea born when my friends gifted me this photographic backpack back when I graduated. The idea is simple: being able to travel anywhere, to tell your stories. The pun – intended – is that as a portrait photographer I am able to shoot your portraits (portrait-able) and also to be portable. Which it rhymes.

Honorable mention in TIPA WORLD AWARD 2025 – category “what’s in my camera bag”