The golden tears

Covid-19 pandemic had a huge consequence on mental health, especially for the younger generation. The youth had to deal with a sense of uncertainty about the future, anxiety, boredom and all the excitement and the energy typical of that age were switched off during the lockdown. But young girls and boys were able to turn that negative situation into a moment of personal growth and they learnt a great lesson of resilience.

The golden tears is a project I worked on since winter 2020, when Italy was facing the second wave of Covid-19.
I wanted to listen to the points of view and the experiences of other girls and boys around my age, with the will to understand how much the pandemic affected our lives and if my generation was learning something from it. My focus was to create a journey into the feelings and the stories of the people I met, in which the pandemic and its consequences are like an invisible presence but they're palpable in the atmosphere of the shots.
A lot of young people suffered during quarantine and they started healing as soon as the lockdown was over, while others had to overcome the anxiety of the coexistence with the virus during the reopening.
However, all of those sufferings and the tears cried are made of gold, because they have been necessary to teach the young generation how to get back on track, to grow up and to understand what's really important in their lives.