The Paolo Pellegrin. Frontiers show hosted at the exhibit halls of the Opera Ferdinando in the Fortress of Bard is open to the public from 30 April to 26 November 2017. This world premiere preview documents the drama of the hope-filled journeys of thousands of immigrants searching for a better future through Paolo Pellegrin’s intense photographic work. Here we can see the horror of the trips through the Mediterranean Sea, the experience of going ashore and staying at the reception centres.

This event is an absolute world premiere preview of works by one of the world’s most renowned photo reporters.

A member of Magnum Photos since 2001, Pellegrin collaborates with the most acclaimed international magazines and has received innumerable acknowledgements. He is the winner of many awards including ten World Press Photo awards and the Robert Capa Gold Medal Award.

The exhibit was created in collaboration with the Magnum Photos Agency in Paris and produced specifically for the architectural characteristics of the Opera Ferdinando exhibit halls and acts as a supplement and contemporary view of the content on display at the nuovo Museo delle Frontiere (New Museum of the Frontiers) to highlight the tragic tale of today’s migratory phenomenon – something that has unfortunately become a sign of our times and, according to the International Migration Organization, will not conclude any time before 2050.

The photographs, in black and white, were taken in 2015 and are remarkable for their visual and emotional impact. Most of them document the situation on the Greek island of Lesbos where over 500,000 of the 850,000 refugees who came into Greece in 2015 landed (statistics released by the UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees).