Padua

In 2020 Padua is the European Capital of Volunteering. Our response to the invitation to participate in Photo Oxford 2020 is, therefore, a set of photographs on the theme of ‘Women who make a difference in Padua’. We focus on women in voluntary organisations in Padua and include women’s engagement with photography as photographic subjects and in how they ‘curate’ and use photographs in social media to promote their cause.

DOMNA is an association based in the Quartiere Nord in Padua which promotes social and cultural initiatives and combats social exclusion. Formed by a group of 23 women, all professionals in different fields, it offers support and provides activities for families, the elderly, children, in fact everybody, in social, cultural, sports and educational contexts.

Giovanni Sgobba, born in Bari in 1988, is a freelance professional journalist and photographer, who also contributes DOMNA. He works with various local and national newspapers and magazines. He has lived in Padua since 2015 and in 2016 he started to create a project called ‘Sguardi d'Arcella’ that tells stories of the Arcella neighbourhood and its inhabitants through words and photos.

Silvia Belotti, born near Bergamo in 1980, has lived and worked in Padua since 2000. She is a non-professional photographer and a volunteer for Associazione DOMNA, also managing the association’s social media. Her photos here document moments during these activities. She also creates graphic artworks from photos and worked on some of Giovanni’s photographs for this project.

Loretta Marini’s images illustrate the areas she volunteers in. These include working with

• Suor Giusta, a nun based in Asmara, to distribute food supplies to mothers and children in Eritrea

• Clown therapy for children in paediatric oncology wards, care homes for the elderly and for the disabled, and in family centres

• FIAB, the Italian environment and cycling federation, both as national representatives and locally in the Padua branch

• An association in Saccolongo (just outside Padua) helping to organise historical reconstructions evoking country life in the 1920s-1940s with displays of the bicycles used by farmworkers to ply their trades.