NEWS

Rome, Milan, April 15, 2026 - On 14 April 2026, the unveiling of the photographic book "The Fight of the Forest: Alaska" by climate artist and Emmy-nominated photographer Enzo Barracco took place at Palazzo Aeronautica, the headquarters of the Italian Air Force in Rome.

A conversation on the power of photography to raise awareness of the importance of protecting the fragility of nature was held in the presence of the author and SEA BEYONDer Enzo Barracco, Lorenzo Bertelli, Prada Group Head of Corporate Social Responsibility, and Francesca Santoro, Senior Programme Officer of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO.

The initiative concluded a two-day programme organised by the Italian Air Force, the National Research Council of Italy (CNR) and Prada Group to celebrate the centenary of the first historic flight over the North Pole by General Umberto Nobile in 1926.

Barracco’s photographic volume "The Fight of the Forest: Alaska" documents the transformation of the Alaskan and Arctic landscapes once traversed by the Norge, turning Nobile’s feat into a contemporary reflection on climate change.

For the occasion, the historic rooms of Palazzo Aeronautica were arranged with a selection of photographs from the exhibition curated by Barracco himself, “Due sguardi sull’Artico a confronto” (Two Perspectives on the Arctic compared), which opened to the public yesterday, 14 April, at the Historical Museum of the Italian Air Force in Vigna di Valle (Rome) and which will be on view until 31 May 2026.

The exhibition in Vigna di Valle and the selection of images displayed at Palazzo Aeronautica bring together past and present through a dialogue between the black-and-white photographs from Nobile’s expedition - preserved in the archives of the Historical Office of the Italian Air Force - and Barracco’s shots, taken in 2025 during an expedition to Alaska and the Arctic Circle supported by SEA BEYOND.