The artist Umberto Santoro (Palermo, 1995) has won the fifth edition of the Premio Mila per la Fotografia Contemporanea 2026, awarded by the Fondo Malerba per la Fotografia. Santoro was selected for his project *L’Ora o della Verità*, which reworks the archive of the historic Palermo daily newspaper *L’Ora* to explore truth as a political and narrative process. The jury, composed of Caterina Angelucci, Matteo Balduzzi, Marta Cereda, Bernardo Follini, Francesca Lazzarini, and Andrea Elia Zanini, praised the work for treating the photographic archive as a living organism and a critical tool for memory production. The winning project will enter the Collezione Malerba and be exhibited at Careof in Milan from June 11 to 27, 2026, alongside finalists Edoardo Bonacina, Virginia Morini, Eva Rivas Bao, and Leonardo Taddei.
The award matters because it highlights the growing role of archival and critical photographic practices in contemporary Italian art, particularly those that interrogate historical narratives, social justice, and collective memory. The Premio Mila, established in 2014 in memory of Mila Malerba, co-founder of the Fondo Malerba per la Fotografia, is dedicated to supporting emerging photographers and fostering new projects through exhibitions, workshops, grants, and prizes. This edition’s focus on projects that reveal hidden or contested stories—from consumer waste and childhood abuse to political scandal and communal play—underscores the prize’s commitment to art as a critical device for uncovering what remains obscured in media, society, and private life.