Dr Valentina Ippolito's documentary photograph Red Wind (2018) won the award for 'Best Urban Photo 2020' at Still Awards, International Photo Awards, Ireland, in November 2020. This is the ninth prize awarded to Red Wind which adds to a list of awards for Best Photography given by several international Film Festivals in Australia, India and Russia.
The photograph, representing a smiling mother carrying her sleeping baby in the backstreets of Jodhpur in Rajasthan, India, is part of "Boundaries: A Stranger's Journey across Nepal and India" - a documentary photography project interpreting the notion of boundaries through the face-to-face encounter between the local and the stranger, travelling across Nepal and India.
The photographic series focuses on the construction of the face as a “widow, orphan, or stranger” as discussed by French philosopher Emmanuel Lévinas in Totality and Infinity: An Essay on Exteriority (1961).
Dr Ippolito's documentary film, The Last Warriors, also received a honourable mention by Athens International Art Film Festival in January 2021 in the following categories:
- Best Documentary;
- Best Directing;
- Best Editing;
- Best Cinematography.
It has since been screened in India and selected as semi-finalist by Art Color Digital Cinema International Film Festival, Brussels, 2020.