Pierpaolo Mittica is an Italian photographer and filmmaker. His long-term work looks at the environmental and human consequences of industrial and nuclear activities. He was born in 1971 and lives and works in Italy.
He fell in love with photography at twelve, when his uncle, a professional photographer, gave him a Polaroid. Around 1996 he became a professional, starting with a project on the war in the Balkans. That year he met Walter Rosenblum, who became his mentor. He first worked on film and switched to digital around 2006 or 2007.
He first went to Chernobyl in 2002 and returned many times. His work there has lasted more than twenty years. His book Chernobyl (GOST Books, 2024) shows the people who live, work and pass through the exclusion zone. He has also photographed the no-go zone around Fukushima.
His photographs have appeared in National Geographic, The Guardian and Der Spiegel. With Alessandro Tesei he co-directed the documentary film The Zone, Road to Chernobyl (2018). He has won more than one hundred international awards.
