There are signs that do not wound the landscape, but tell the story of it.
They are the footprints of man, light or deep, ancient or contemporary, crossing time and leaving traces of labor, faith, toil, ingenuity, memory.
The Photo Contest “Footsteps of Man” 2025 was born from this awareness and is part of the shared path between Mangiatorella Spa and the Serre Regional Natural Park, aimed at promoting a new culture of the gaze: more attentive, more respectful, more aware of the relationship between man and nature.
After dedicating previous editions to nature and culture and spirituality, this year’s theme invites us to observe the Serre territory as a lived space, shaped over time by the interaction between the natural environment and human presence. Paths, dry stone walls, ruins, daily gestures, signs of work and devotion thus become elements of a visual narrative that restores dignity, identity and meaning to the landscape.
The selected photographs do not celebrate impact, but dialogue. They tell how humans, when they know how to listen, can become part of the natural balance and not its negation. Each image is a fragment of history, a silent testimony, an invitation to reflect on what we leave behind.
This contest is not just a photography competition. It is a cultural act, a tool for environmental education and land enhancement, strengthening the link between community, landscape and memory, and helping to build a vision of Serre Park as a living, inhabited, conscious place.
The Footsteps of Man do not ask to be erased.
They ask to be understood.
And, above all, respected.
