Fine Art nominee

Every year, the Italian countryside comes alive with color as part of an annual spectacle known as 'la fioritura' (the flowering or blooming). Poppies, cornflowers, daisies, and violets paint the landscape in rainbow hues.

Shepherds traverse through these extravagant blooms on foot and horseback on a seasonal migration called transhumance. This long-distance movement takes sheep from pastures in one region to another with more food available for grazing.

Transhumance is deeply rooted in Italy’s cultural heritage, with knowledge transmitted from generation to generation. Following World War ll, an exodus of shepherds from Sardinia guided their sheep into south-central Italy, reclaiming the land abandoned by farmers. Breathing life into entirely deserted villages across the countryside, these sheepherders revived and reinvented Italy’s rural heritage, blending it with their own.

Today, this way of life is fading as a new generation is drawn to urban life. Wherever it is practiced, transhumance shaped landscapes: Over millennia, shrines, churches, inns, and villages materialized near the shepherd’s routes.

National Geographic | Daily Dozen - selected by Jeanne M. Modderman | National Geographic Society (Washington, District of Columbia, United States) - August 2016

People’s Choice Award | Blurb Publishing Company - Bright & Colorful Photography Contest - June 2016

1st Place | 2-D Category - Missouri State University University/Community Programs (U/CP) Department- Art Around Town

Grand Prize | Making Memories Photography Contest - Hosted by Kingston Technology (California) - October 2015

2nd Place - Darkroom Contest | BetterPhoto- 2nd Place - May 31,

2016 Finalist - Pastel Tones in Nature Photography Contest | Hosted by Daniel Kordan - Del Mar, California - June 2017

Finalist - Image of The Month Photo Contest Vol 12 - San Diego, California - August 30, 2016

Honorable Mention - 3-D Category - Missouri State University University/Community Programs (U/CP) Department- Art Around Town

Colors of Nature Photography Contest - Hosted by Fotostrasse  (Berlin, Germany) - Grand Prize (October  2015)

"Digital Darkroom Contest" Hosted by BetterPhoto - Second Place (May 31, 2016)

2010    Art Around Town, Civic Center, Missouri State University-West Plains’ University/Community Programs (U/CP) Department, West Plains, Missouri

2011    Art Around Town, Civic Center, Missouri State University-West Plains’ University/Community Programs (U/CP) Department, West Plains,